Anxiety and depression in Chinese patients with glaucoma and its correlations with vision-related quality of life and visual function indices: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate anxiety and depression in patients with glaucoma and its correlations with vision-related quality of life (VR-QoL) and visual function indices. DESIGN: A hospital-based, cross-sectional study. SETTING: Shanghai, China PARTICIPANTS: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) were administered to 446 Chinese patients with glaucoma to assess their psychological disorders, namely anxiety and depression, and VR-QoL, respectively. OUTCOME MEASURES: Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected at the same time. Multivariate linear regression analysis was carried out to investigate the associations between VR-QoL, visual function indices and psychological disorders. Standardised partial regression analysis was used to identify the variable mostly indicative in evaluating psychological burdens. RESULTS: The prevalence of anxiety and depression in Chinese patients with glaucoma was 12.11% and 25.78%, respectively. Most of the subscales and the composite score of NEI VFQ-25 were negatively associated with each parameter of anxiety and depression after adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical variables. For visual function indices, only the best-corrected visual acuity of both eyes was correlated with anxiety after adjustment. Standardised partial regression analysis further showed VR-QoL, but not the objective visual function indices, was mostly relevant to psychological disturbances. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety and depression were common in Chinese patients with glaucoma. Self-reported VR-QoL was beneficial in assessing psychological status of patients with glaucoma, while objective visual function indices provide little hint on it.