title: Defining the content of patient questionnaires: reasons for seeking laser in situ keratomileusis for myopia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the relative importance of patients' motives for having laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) for myopia.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Corneal Diseases and Excimer Laser Research Unit, University of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee, Scotland.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-one cards printed with potential reasons for having LASIK and 3 blank cards for respondents to include additional motives were posted to 71 patients who had myopic LASIK. The cards were ranked by each respondent in order of personal importance and returned for analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate was 77.5%. The mean age of the 19 male and 37 female respondents was 41.7 years +/- 9.3 (SD) and the mean preoperative spherical equivalent, -9.26 +/- 4.58 diopters. The primary reasons for seeking treatment (percentage of respondents ranking topic within the top 5) were improvement of unaided social vision (69.1%), intolerance to spectacles/contact lenses (65.5%), and freedom from spectacles/contact lenses (61.8%). Almost 70% of respondents ranked 1 of these reasons as the most important. General inconvenience of spectacles/contact lenses and the desire to pursue sports and leisure activities also ranked high (52.7% and 36.4%, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Consistent with previous work, better unaided vision, combined with the inconvenience of or intolerance to spectacles or contact lenses, provided the main incentives to have LASIK for myopia, while improved cosmesis was relatively unimportant (29.1%). The results of this study will allow the design of satisfaction questionnaires that are better directed toward establishing satisfaction of specific, relevant functional and psychological aspects of refractive surgery that are important to patients.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Ophthalmology, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Doreen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Khan-Lim
authors.forename: Jennifer P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Craig
authors.forename: Charles N J
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: McGhee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition; D003319:Corneal Stroma / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020731:Keratomileusis, Laser In Situ / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009216:Myopia / Q000601:surgery*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012309:Risk-Taking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires