The personal burden of decreased vision-targeted health-related quality of life in nursing home residents.
OBJECTIVE
To present the bother subscales of the Nursing Home Vision-Targeted Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire (NHVQoL) and to examine their relationship to the original NHVQoL subscales and objective measures of visual function.


METHODS
395 nursing home residents completed the bother subscales. Associations between bother subscales and original subscales and objectively measured vision were evaluated.


RESULTS
Mean bother scores ranged from 1.97 to 2.30, reflecting an average rating of "a little" bother. For 20 NHVQoL items, more than 50% of participants reported "a lot" of bother. All NHVQoL original subscale scores were moderately correlated with bother subscales (p < .0001). Bother subscales and visual acuity were not highly correlated.


CONCLUSIONS
Nursing home residents are bothered by reductions in vision-targeted health-related quality of life. The NHVQoL bother subscales may probe the personal burden of visual problems in this population that is not captured by the original subscales or objectively measuring visual function.
Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 700 S 18th St, Suite 609, Birmingham, AL 35294-0009, USA. ipa3@cdc.gov
Amanda F
AF
Elliott
Laura E
LE
Dreer
Gerald
G
McGwin
Kay
K
Scilley
Cynthia
C
Owsley
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D014787:Vision Tests; D014792:Visual Acuity