2Yrd. Doç. Dr., Yuksek Ihtisas University, School of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Ankara, Türkiye
3Prof. Dr., University of Health Sciences, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, Department of Ophthalmology, Ankara, Türkiye Purpose: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the major causes of vision loss and blindness in adults. DR was associated with qualitative and quantitative losses in vision related quality of life (VRQOL). Determination of VRQOL and evaluation of some blood parameters might be related to visual functioning questionnaire (VFQ) scores in patients with DR. The aim of the study is to determine VRQOL in patients with and without DR.
Materials and Methods: A case- control study has been performed in case and control groups. Nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) cases were matched to patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and without diabetic retinopathy (DR) in terms of age, sex, and duration of DM in the head-to-head study. A Turkish version of National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25) including 25 items was conducted.
Results: Mean duration of diabetes was 136.34±100.6 months. 29.6% of the patients had mild NPDR, 29.6% had moderate-severe NPDR and 40.8% had PDR. 33 patients had macular edema (ME). In this group, 60.6% had severe NPDR and 39.4% had PDR (p<0.001). VFQ-25 scores were found higher in control group (p<0.001). PDR and macular edema (ME) were the most important parameters that effect VRQOL in logistic regression analysis.
Conclusion: It was shown that VFQ-25 was impaired in patients with PDR and ME. We believe that, the patients who have chronic diseases like PDR should be regularly examined in order to increase the quality of life and improve the prognosis.
Keywords : Vision related quality of life, BUN, diabetic retinopathy, diabetes mellitus, HbA1c