Vision-related quality of life and psychosocial well-being of patients with episcleritis and scleritis: a neglected essence?

BACKGROUND: To assess the change in vision-related quality of life and psychosocial well-being of the patients with episcleritis and scleritis patients before and after treatment. RESULTS: This one-and-a-half-year prospective study was conducted among 76 eyes of 71 new patients of episcleritis and scleritis. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the visual and to analyze the change in effect size. The male-to-female ratio was 1:1.536. Episcleritis was seen in 41 cases (57.7%) while scleritis was seen in 30 cases (42.3%). Patients with episcleritis had statistically significant improvement in general function score (GF) (p < 0.05) using paired t-test. The effect size showed medium improvement (approximately 0.5). Whereas there was no statistically significant change in psychosocial impact (PI), visual symptoms (VS) scoring, and a total score (p < 0.05) using paired t-test. The effect size showed no improvement for PI and total score and small improvement for VS score. Patients with scleritis had statistically significant improvement in general function score (GF), visual symptoms (VS) scoring and total score (p < 0.05) using paired-t-test. The effect size showed medium improvement (approximately 0.5) for general function score (GF) and total score. However, the effect size showed only a small improvement (approximately 0.2) for psychosocial impact (PI) score. CONCLUSIONS: VisionRelated Quality of Life of patients with scleritis showed significant improvement following treatment unlike episcleritis indicating scleritis more adversely affecting psychosocial well-being.