Quality of Life and Visual Efficiency: fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To analyze the association of visual efficiency and quality of life using data from the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V). METHODS: The present study included 5,244 glaucoma or glaucoma suspect subjects who completed a visual acuity test, visual field test and health-related questionnaire from the KNHANES V. Visual efficiency was calculated using best corrected visual acuity and visual field test. Quality of life was assessed with EuroQoL 5D (EQ-5D). Visual efficiency was compared with best corrected vision of the better eye to evaluate the relationship with quality of life. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and partial correlations analysis were used to analyze the associations between factors. RESULTS: Both visual efficiency and best corrected visual acuity of the better eye were significantly different with all EQ-5D parameters (p < 0.005). After controlling for age, gender, income, education, spouse and house ownership, visual efficiency showed a positive correlation coefficient of +0.040 (p = 0.006) with the quality of life and the best corrected visual acuity of the better eye showed negative correlation coefficient of -0.044 (p = 0.002) with the quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Visual efficiency was associated with the quality of life. Not only visual acuity but also visual efficiency would be a valuable parameter when considering the quality of life. Further studies are needed to evaluate non-glaucomatous populations.