Correlation between Visual Field and Quality of Life in Glaucomatous Patients

Glaucoma is a chronic progressive optic neuropathy, and the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. The goal of glaucoma management is not only slow down the progression of the disease and maintain visual function, but also preserving patients’ quality of life. Visual field test is essential to monitor disease progression. One of the most recent indexes used is the Visual Field Index (VFI), that gives a summary of the visual field status of the patient and is not altered by the presence of other ocular pathologies like cataracts, and it focuses on the central visual field. The objective of our study was to determine the correlation between the VFI and the quality of life of patients through the usage of the NEI VFQ-25 questionnaire and the GSS questionnaire. We collected information of 193 patients, who were diagnosed with different types of glaucoma. Patients have been given the NEI VFQ-25 questionnaire and the GSS questionnaire to compile, and other anamnestic and clinical information were recorded, such as gender, age, years with glaucoma, medication, previous surgeries, IOP, and so on. Moreover, every patient’s indexes of the most recent visual field performed have been collected. In the analysis the single anamnestic and clinical factors considered, have been correlated to the mean score of the NEI VFQ-25 and the GSS function to determine the presence of significant correlations. Then the VFI max has been correlated to the score of the NEI VFQ-25 and GSS considering the significant confounding variables found previously. The result obtained was a positive correlation between the visual field index and the score of the NEI VFQ-25 and the GSS, thus the quality of life of the patient. In conclusion, the VFI can be used as both an index that summarize the visual field of patients but also as an instrument to consider estimating patients’ quality of life.