Analysis of quality of life of patients with refractive errors in India

Neha Purohit; Aarti Goyal; Parul Chawla Gupta; Kathirvel Soundappan; Atul Kotwal; Shankar Prinja

doi:10.1016/j.jhqr.2024.08.001

Analysis of quality of life of patients with refractive errors in India

J Healthc Qual Res. 2024 Sep 5:S2603-6479(24)00063-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jhqr.2024.08.001. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Neha Purohit¹, Aarti Goyal¹, Parul Chawla Gupta², Kathirvel Soundappan¹, Atul Kotwal³, Shankar Prinja⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
² Department of Ophthalmology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
³ National Health Systems Resource Centre, New Delhi, India.
⁴ Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. Electronic address: shankarprinja@gmail.com.

PMID: 39242342
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhqr.2024.08.001

Abstract

Introduction: It is important to determine the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) to devise population-based cost-effective service delivery models. The present study aimed to evaluate the HRQoL of patients with refractive errors (RE) using generic and vision-specific instruments, identify the determinants of HRQoL, and examine the validity between the quality-of-life instruments for refractive errors.

Methods: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 515 participants with RE using generic as well as vision-specific HRQoL measures. Mean EuroQol-five dimensions-five levels (EQ-5D-5L) utility value, National Eye Institute-Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ-25) composite score, and EuroQol-Visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) score were computed, and determinants of quality of life were determined using generalized linear regression model. The validity between generic and disease-specific measures was ascertained using Pearson's coefficient.

Results: The mean EQ-5D-5L utility score for patients with RE was estimated as 0.72 (95% CI: 0.70-0.75). The mean NEI-VFQ-25 composite score and EQ-VAS score were 71.3 (95% CI: 69.8-73), and 74.7 (95% CI: 73.4-76.1), respectively. Visual acuity, gender, and presence of co-morbidities were significantly associated with quality of life. The concurrence between the generic and vision-specific instruments was found to be low to moderate.

Conclusion: The findings of the study indicate the importance of the value of quality of life for patients with RE, which could be taken into account by health administrators, doctors and researchers to carry out economic evaluations, since these measures provide a basis for an evaluation more precisely the impact of RE and guide the determination of efficient ways to alleviate the burden of treatable visual impairment. More research is required to explore the potential integration of a vision component, the sixth dimension, into the EQ-5D-5L instrument, given the moderate agreement observed between the generic and specific assessment tools.

Keywords: Año de vida ajustado por calidad; Calidad de vida; Calidad de vida relacionada con la salud; Economic evaluation; Errores refractivos; Evaluación económica; HRQoL; Patient reported outcomes; Quality adjusted life year; Quality of life; Refractive errors; Resultados informados por el paciente.