Association between changes in visual acuity and vision-related quality of life in Japanese patients with low vision

Purpose: To investigate the association between vision-related quality of life (VRQOL) and changes in visual acuity (VA). Methods: We examined the VA in 100 patients for >1 year and evaluated the degree of its impact on VRQOL using the National Eye Institute Visual Function (VF) Questionnaire (VFQ-25; Japanese version). Before determining VFQ-25, we monitored the changes in VA in these patients for 1 year and classified them into the following two groups depending on VA changes. Patients exhibiting a decline of >3 steps in VA, as assessed by the logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution scale, were placed in the 'decline' group (47.0%) and patients exhibiting no change in VA were placed in the 'no change' group (53.0%). We compared the VFQ-25 scores between both groups in all patients with glaucoma (GLA) and macular degeneration (MD). Results: The total score of the decline was 34.9 ± 13.6 and that of the no change group was 44.6 ± 13.9: the difference in the scores between both groups was statistically significant (p = 0.006). Similar results were obtained for patients with GLA and MD (p = 0.007 and 0.003, respectively). Conclusion: VRQOL differed between patients with constant VA and those with reduced VA, even though VA values were equal at a certain time point.