The Relationship Between Vision-related Quality of Life and Visual Function in Glaucoma Patients

PURPOSE: To evaluate the relationship between vision-related quality of life (QOL) as measured by the short-form 11-item Japanese version of the Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-J11) and the severity of visual field (VF) defects in patients with glaucoma. METHODS: The study included 134 glaucoma patients and 30 normal subjects. VF testing using the Humphrey Field Analyzer was performed to obtain both the VF index (VFI) and MD in both eyes of each glaucoma patient. Binocular integrated VF was constructed for each patient by merging corresponding sensitivity values from monocular VFs, and the correlation between visual function and vision-related QOL was then assessed. RESULTS: A significant relationship was found between QOL and VF in 6 of 7 subscales on the VFQ-J11, and between the composite scores in both the better eye and the worse eye in glaucoma patients. The relationship was stronger in the worse eye than in the better eye. Overall, correlation coefficients of the VFI were higher than those of MD and slightly higher than those of integrated VF in the worse eye. CONCLUSIONS: The VFI showed a marginally better correlation than MD. Assessment of VFI in the worse eye may provide useful information regarding vision-related QOL in glaucoma patients.