title: Health- and vision-related quality of life in patients with ocular hypertension or primary open-angle glaucoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The main objective of this analysis was to assess the impact of severity of disease on the quality of life (QoL) of patients with ocular hypertension (OHT) and early, moderate, or advanced primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).
  
  
  METHODS
  This multicenter study was conducted at 2 university hospitals and 13 ophthalmology practices in Germany. QoL data were assessed by the Health Utility Index (HUI3) and the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25).
  
  
  RESULTS
  154 patients (17.5% OHT, 27.9% early, 22.7% moderate, and 31.8% advanced POAG) were included. The HUI3 scores for OHT, early, moderate, and advanced POAG were 0.87 ± 0.09, 0.85 ± 0.15, 0.75 ± 0.23, and 0.58 ± 0.32, respectively. Compared to a normal population matched by age and gender, for moderate and severe POAG a difference of -0.06 ± 0.24 and -0.19 ± 0.28, respectively, was observed. NEI-VFQ-25 scores illustrate different dimensions of the impact on QoL; reduced peripheral vision or difficulties to drive a car were more crucial to glaucoma patients than social factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The key difference for QoL impairment in glaucoma lies between OHT/early POAG versus moderate/severe POAG, hence every possible effort needs to be made to prevent disease progression over this threshold.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center, DE-55131 Mainz, Germany. christian.wolfram@unimedizin-mainz.de
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wolfram
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lorenz
authors.forename: Lusine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Breitscheidel
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Verboven
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pfeiffer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009798:Ocular Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014792:Visual Acuity; D014794:Visual Fields