Additional psychometric information and vision-specific questionnaires are available for age-related macular degeneration

Abstract

Purpose To present psychometric information and studies dealing with questionnaires for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and visually impaired patients in addition to the study by Finger et al. ''Quality of life in AMD: a review of available vision-specific psychometric tools''. We propose that their literature search should not have focused solely on the specific eye disease AMD. Methods The literature search was partly replicated (PubMed) by using ''visual impairment'' instead of ''macular degeneration'' as free text words. Psychometric information was obtained from the additional studies. Preliminary results from a differential item functioning (DIF) analysis used to examine the relationship between item responses on the Vision-related quality of life Core Measure (VCM1) of AMD patients versus patients with other eye conditions are discussed. Results Eight studies of visually impaired patient populations, including AMD patients, are discussed, with psychometric information from six vision-specific questionnaires. The VCM1 items did not present DIF, which means that the items were equally interpreted by all patients. Conclusions The results on DIF and the additional studies presented here confirm that a specific eye disorder is of minor importance in the choice of a vision-specific questionnaire or, in this case, a literature search.

Evaluation of Reading, Writing, and Watching TV Using the Dutch ICF Activity Inventory

“…The subscales ''Basic aspects'' (i.e., problems with glare/dazzled by lights, seeing the TV, getting right amount of light, eyes getting tired, and seeing moving objects) and ''Reading and fine work,'' which has two subscales, ''Reading small print'' (i.e., problems with reading labels, newspaper text and books, and mail) and ''Visual (motor) skills'' (problems with using tools, writing, reading own handwriting, finding out the time, and reading large print), 44,45 were used to analyze different dimensions of vision-related quality of life.…”

Re-evaluating a vision-related quality of life questionnaire with item response theory (IRT) and differential item functioning (DIF) analyses

“…visually impaired older patients of an observational study on the vision-related quality-of-life effects of two types of low-vision rehabilitation (optometric service and multidisciplinary rehabilitation service) [4,10]. Consecutive patients (n = 357) were recruited from the ophthalmology departments of four hospitals in the Netherlands between July 2000 and January 2003.…”

“…Research in low vision has primarily focused on older adult populations, because of increased prevalence of age-related eye conditions in older age [2-8]. Those studies used several vision-related quality-of-life questionnaires which allow to assess the disability suffered in daily life [9,10]. In their review, de Boer et al reported that the original Low Vision Quality Of Life questionnaire (LVQOL) was one of the best for use in patients with low vision [11,12]; its items are mainly related to difficulties people have in performing certain activities due to their visual disability.…”

“…Although vision-related quality-of-life questionnaires measure at the disability level, items could be problematic to patients in different ways due to differences in visual impairment, such as visual acuity or field loss. This could indicate whether there should be separate calibrations for populations with specific eye conditions [10] or demographic variables.…”

Metric properties of the MacDQoL, individualized macular-disease-specific quality of life instrument, and newly identified subscales in French, German, Italian, and American populations

“…Although visual function measures (e.g., NEI-VFQ-25 [18]) and well-being (e.g., the Well-being Questionnaire W-BQ12 [19]) are likely to correlate to some degree with QoL, they are not in themselves measures of QoL. Finger et al [28] in 2008 and van Nispen et al [29] in 2009 provided useful reviews of vision-specific questionnaires available for people who have AMD. Although Finger et al entitled their article "Quality of Life in Age-Related Macular Degeneration," in fact most of the measures included in the review are measures of visual function.…”