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New questionnaire gauges quality of life for adults with strabismus
Ophthalmology. 2009;116(1):139-144.
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A new questionnaire may be useful in assessing health-related quality of life for adults with strabismus and may serve as an outcome measure for clinical trials.
The questionnaire comprises 10 questions on psychosocial status and 10 questions on function.
Patient interviews conducted during an earlier phase of the study generated 181 questionnaire items. Investigators used factor analysis to select the final 20 items.
Investigators selected 32 patients with strabismus, 13 visually normal adults and 18 patients with other eye diseases to test the 20-item questionnaire. A five-point Likert scale was used for each item: never (a score of 100), rarely (75), sometimes (50), often (25) and always (0). A higher score denoted better quality of life.
Collectively, strabismus patients had a lower median overall score (56) than visually normal adults (95) and those with other eye diseases (86). Strabismus patients had a lower median score on the psychosocial subscale (69) than visually normal adults (99) and those with other eye diseases (94). They had a lower median function score (43) than visually normal adults (91) and those with other disorders (78).
Too often adults with strabismus are told that they cannot be helped and their problem is viewed as “cosmetic.” This is unfortunate as a great number of adults with strabismus suffer from both functional and social problems related to their disease. The study by Hatt et al provides important information that will help us to help these patients. It demonstrates that strabismus does have a significant impact on the quality of life in adults. It also provides a useful tool to give us a baseline which can be utilized to track and analyze treatment studies for these patients. While the questionnaire may not yet directly change the way we treat adult strabismus, it will help us understand how important an issue it is and allow us to measure our treatment of it.
– Scott E. Olitsky, MD
OSN Pediatrics/Strabismus Board Member