Vision-related quality of life in patients with infectious keratitis.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the vision-related quality of life (VR-QOL) in patients with infectious keratitis using the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25).


METHODS
Sixty-five patients with infectious keratitis (IK) were enrolled in the study. The NEI VFQ-25 scores and clinical and demographic data, including age, gender, pathogen, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and duration of the disease, were collected from the subjects. The subscale and composite scores were calculated and analyzed. Correlations between the VFQ-25 scores and the clinical and demographic features were also explored.


RESULTS
The mean age of enrolled subjects was 48.4 years (SD, 16.2), with 44 males (67.7%). The microbial pathogens were viruses (n = 48, 73.8%), fungi (n = 13, 20.0%), and bacteria (n = 4, 6.2%). The mean scores of each VFQ-25 subscale ranged from 31.9 (SD, 28.6) for role difficulties to 92.7 (SD, 13.1) for color vision; the mean composite score was 58.1 (SD, 19.2). Significant differences in scores were observed only in the subscale of dependency among educational levels and in the mental health subscale and the composite among the three pathogen groups. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that VFQ-25 composite score correlated significantly with the BCVA of the worse-seeing eye, duration of the disease, history of operation (for IK treatment), and gender.


CONCLUSIONS
Infectious keratitis has extensive impacts on patients and VR-QOL. The BCVA of worse-seeing eye, duration, history of operation for IK treatment, and gender contributed independently to VR-QOL. Early treatment should be encouraged to obtain better visual prognosis and VR-QOL for patients with IK.
*MD †MD, PhD Department of Ophthalmology, Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital, School of Shanghai Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China (YL, JH, AW, XW, YC, XC, XS, JX); State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Institutes of Brain Science, Shanghai, China (XS); and Xiamen University, Fujian, China (JH, ZL).
Yimin
Y
Li
Jiaxu
J
Hong
Anji
A
Wei
Xin
X
Wang
Yan
Y
Chen
Xinhan
X
Cui
Xinghuai
X
Sun
Zuguo
Z
Liu
Jianjiang
J
Xu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D015817:Eye Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007634:Keratitis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity; D055815:Young Adult