[Quality of Life in Patients with Glaucoma].

BACKGROUND: The goal of glaucoma treatment is to maintain the patient's visual function and related quality of life, at a sustainable cost. In this review, methods of measuring quality of life are presented, together with their impact in clinical practice.

METHODS: Searches were from the inception of the database to date. Electronic databases searched included Medline (Ovid), Medline In-Process (Ovid), and Embase (Ovid). In a semistructured approach, the articles were checked for their eligibility to provide information about the measurement and application of quality of life in glaucoma patients.

RESULTS: Well established questionnaires are available to measure quality of life in glaucoma patients, as well as instruments to measure benefits. Performance-based measures are more time-consuming. The Glaucoma Activity Limitation-9 Questionnaire (GAL-9) is a glaucoma-specific questionnaire in German, with a Rasch analysis. In eye diseases with central visual field defects, it is the better eye that determines the patient's quality of life, whereas in glaucoma patients with peripheral defects, it is the worse eye that has a stronger influence. Structural changes in glaucoma are less well correlated with quality of life than are functional impairments. There have been a few initial reports of patterns of visual field defects that correlate with subjective impairments.

CONCLUSIONS: The data can help to improve our understanding of individual patient impairment and support our efforts to improve the medical advice and therapy that these patients receive.