A pre- and post-treatment evaluation of vision-related quality of life in uveitis

AIM: To study the effect of treatment on vision-related quality of life (VR-QOL) in uveitis patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Interviewer-administered questionnaire-based evaluation of visual function and VR-QOL in Tamil-speaking adult patients with active uveitis at presentation and follow-up by the same interviewer. RESULTS: Ninety-eight patients participated in this study. There was a statistically significant improvement in VR-QOL in all the scales following treatment (P < 0.001). Patients with chronic uveitis showed better improvement upon treatment than patients with acute uveitis. The visual symptoms scale showed moderate gains following treatment (effect size 0.56). Persons with bilateral disease had poorer mean scores compared to those with unilateral disease. Visual acuity was closely correlated with VR-QOL scores. CONCLUSION: The VR-QOL measurement has shown that it is sensitive to demonstrate the problems of patients with uveitis irrespective of their demographic profile. The scores improved significantly in patients with uveitis following treatment and have shown close correlation to visual acuity thus demonstrating that VR-QOL is effective in assessing the response to treatment.