title: Identifying areas of the visual field important for quality of life in patients with glaucoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to create a vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) prediction system to identify visual field (VF) test points associated with decreased VRQoL in patients with glaucoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  VRQoL score was surveyed in 164 patients with glaucoma using the 'Sumi questionnaire'. A binocular VF was created from monocular VFs by using the integrated VF (IVF) method. VRQoL score was predicted using the 'Random Forest' method, based on visual acuity (VA) of better and worse eyes (better-eye and worse-eye VA) and total deviation (TD) values from the IVF. For comparison, VRQoL scores were regressed (linear regression) against: (i) mean of TD (IVF MD); (ii) better-eye VA; (iii) worse-eye VA; and (iv) IVF MD and better- and worse-eye VAs. The rank of importance of IVF test points was identified using the Random Forest method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The root mean of squared prediction error associated with the Random Forest method (0.30 to 1.97) was significantly smaller than those with linear regression models (0.34 to 3.38, p<0.05, ten-fold cross validation test). Worse-eye VA was the most important variable in all VRQoL tasks. In general, important VF test points were concentrated along the horizontal meridian. Particular areas of the IVF were important for different tasks: peripheral superior and inferior areas in the left hemifield for the 'letters and sentences' task, peripheral, mid-peripheral and para-central inferior regions for the 'walking' task, the peripheral superior region for the 'going out' task, and a broad scattered area across the IVF for the 'dining' task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The VRQoL prediction model with the Random Forest method enables clinicians to better understand patients' VRQoL based on standard clinical measurements of VA and VF.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Murata
authors.forename: Hiroyo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hirasawa
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Aoyama
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugisaki
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Araie
authors.forename: Chihiro
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mayama
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aihara
authors.forename: Ryo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Asaoka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D015812:Glaucoma, Angle-Closure / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D058609:Visual Field Tests; D014794:Visual Fields