Jornal de Doenças e Distúrbios Oculares

Abstrato

Can Low Vision Aids Improve the Quality of Life of Low Vision Patients?

Fereydoun Firouzeh and Seyyedmehdi Tabatabaee

Purpose: Considering the community-level of low vision, evaluation the rate of satisfaction of different low vision aids (LVAs) and quality of life (QOL), in low visions (LV) who use a kind of them, is very important. Method: This is a cross-sectional study. This study evaluated the rate of satisfaction and QOL in the patients who presented to Cheshmak LV centre in Malayer since 21 June 2012 till 21 June 2015 and received a kind of LVA, with a reliable interviewing questionnaire. Statistical testing was carried out by using the SPSS-18. Two tailed paired ttest and independent t-test were used. Differences were considered significant at P value ≤ 0.05. Results: The results of the two tailed paired t-test used in comparison between the QOL before and after use of LVAs, indicated that all the general vision (p=0.012), average of quality of vision, quality of near activities, mental health, role difficulties, and dependency (p<0.0005) were increased significantly after use of these equipment. But quality of distance activities, social functioning, and ocular pain (0.173 ≤ p ≤ 0.809), did not change significantly. In general, the satisfaction of 91.7% of patient was more than 50%. The mean rate of satisfaction in males and females were not statistically significant (p=0.27). The rate of satisfaction and rate of influence of these devices on the patient’s QOL did not dependent on the age or VA of the patients. Conclusion: Using of LVAs improve the LVs’ QOL in different aspects