Is your vision affecting the way you live?

An individual's own perception of quality of life is perhaps one of the most meaningful measure of that individual's level visual function. The National Eye Institute (NEI) Visual Functioning Questionnaire (VFQ-25) was developed to measure vision-specific health-related quality of life. The VFQ-25 assess difficulty with near vision activities, difficulty with distance vision activities, limitations in social functioning due to vision, role limitations due to vision, dependency on others due to vision, mental health symptoms due to vision, future expectations for vision, driving difficulties, pain and discomfort in or around the eyes, limitations with peripheral vision and color vision. VFQ-25 questionnaire was developed from patient focus groups representing a diverse set of visual conditions, the intention being to develop a scale that can be generalized to all patients with vision deficits, regardless of cause. Across the range of developmental conditions (cataract, glaucoma, AMD, and diabetic retinopathy), as well as other conditions as diverse as corneal diseases and vascular occlusions of the retina, NEI-VFQ scores vary in the expected direction with differences in visual performance and disease state.

With this questionnaire you can determine your Vision Score. You will be presented with a series of questions (39 in all). With normal vision and no vision related quality of life limitation, the maximum score of 100 is achieved. The lower the score, greater is the vision disability.

Data from 4077 patients who had enrolled in the National Institutes of Health sponsored AREDS study showed that those who have advanced macular degeneration will have mean score of 74. Patients with advanced cataract will have a mean score of 86 or 88 depending upon the type of cataract (Arch Ophthalmol. 2003;121:211-7). Based on this data, it seems reasonable to assume that those individuals who have score of less than 90 (overall score or on a subscale) should seek an eye exam.


Online Vision Questionnaire

Assessing Visual Functioning in Patients with Cataract

Patients with similar visual acuities or comparable severity of cataract often report different degrees of difficulties with their ability to perform visual tasks and other related functions. A patient with cataract may have 20/20 visual acuity in office testing conditions, but may not be able to drive due to glare difficulties with oncoming headlights at night. Thus, visual acuity or contrast sensitivity alone may not adequately reflect the degree of functional impairment or difficulty someone experiences. The impact of cataracts on visual functioning and quality-of-life can be measured using questionnaires.

The VF-14 questionnaire is one such quality-of-life measure that has been developed to assess visual function in patients undergoing cataract surgery. Respondents are asked whether they have any difficulty with various vision-related tasks (e.g., reading, even with glasses, a newspaper or a book). A Score on a 0 to 100 scale is given - the lower the score, greater is the vision impairment due to cataract. At a score below 75, individuals are likely to opt for cataract surgery.
Answer the VF-14 questionnaire (below) and get your score!

Assessing Severity of Dry Eyes

Symptom assessment is a key component of dry eye diagnosis - to the extent that many believe dry eye syndrome to be a symptom-based disease. Several questionnaires have been developed to determine a score that would allow for dry eye diagnosis.

McMonnies & Ho questionnaire is the one that is often used in clinical studies of dry eyes. There are 14 questions that can give a score from 0 to 45. Scores above 14.5 are consistent with dry eye diagnosis. Scores above 14.5 have a 87% sensitivity and specificity for dry eye diagnosis (Adv Exp Med Biol 1998;438:835-8). The maximum possible score is 45. The closer your score is to 45, the more certain is the dry eye diagnosis and the more severe is your dry eye disease.


Dry Eye Questionnaire

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