Abstract

EFFECTS OF GLAUCOMA ON QUALITY OF LIFE

Dr. Surbhi Gupta*

ABSTRACT

Glaucoma requires long-term drug therapy, strict patient compliance, periodical monitoring of ocular parameters, and a reliable follow-up. As an important method of understanding the impact of the disease, the Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 (GQL-15) questionnaire is composed of 15 items, 4 domains which address factors of visual disability. The study was conducted on 50 diagnosed cases of chronic open/closed angle glaucoma in one or both eyes, who were attending the OPD of Department of Opthamology GMC Jammu, and healthy controls, during March 2017 to August 2017. The GQL-15 factors and are represented by a code between 1 to 5: 1, with higher scores indicating greater difficulty in performing vision-related activities and poorer QoL. More than half of the cases, i.e., 27 (54%) were diagnosed to have mild glaucoma whereas severe glaucoma patients were found to be 12 (24%). The mean GQL score of glaucoma cases was 27.03 ± 11.43 and for controls it was 16.47 ± 2.82 (p value < 0.01). This study showed a significant rise in the score between subgroups suggestive of deteriorating visual quality as the severity of glaucoma increased. A marked difference in GQL-15 performance measures between patients with glaucoma and healthy individuals suggests a declining vision-related life quality with glaucoma. QoL assessments among glaucoma patients help treating physicians to better appreciate the impact of a disease from the patient's own point of view.

Keywords: Glaucoma, Quality of Life, Visual Acuity.