Original ArticlesInfluence of age-related maculopathy on visual functioning and health-related quality of life☆
Section snippets
Methods
This ancillary study prospectively enrolled consecutive patients with age-related maculopathy who were scheduled for vision care by one of the authors (J.M.S.) at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary between July 1, 1992, and September 1, 1993, as part of the Age-related Macular Degeneration Progression Study, which began in 1989. This study is an ongoing longitudinal study designed to measure multiple risk factors for progression of maculopathy.
Eligibility criteria at the baseline visit
Results
The 201 patients (63% female; 97% white) had a mean (± SD) age of 71 ± 10 years. The mean number of medical comorbidities was one, with the most common comorbid conditions being hypertension (43%), heart disease (20%), and diabetes mellitus (7%); 41% of the participants had no comorbid medical conditions.
On average, this cohort had well-preserved visual acuity, with a median corrected acuity value of 20/25 in the better eye and 20/40 in the worse eye (Table 1). Patients in this sample reported
Discussion
Our results illustrate the performance of generic health-related quality of life and vision-targeted measures for a sample of patients with age-related maculopathy and the relationship of these measures with standard clinical indicators of severity of age-related maculopathy. The SF-36 had low and nonsignificant correlations with both clinical indicators of age-related maculopathy severity and visual acuity. Similarly, unadjusted mean SF-36 scores were nonsignificant across severity categories
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Elaine Abrams for assisting with the patient interviews and Alex Pedan for assisting with construction of the data set and analyses.
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This study was supported in part by Clinical Investigator Award 1K08-AG00605 from the National Institute on Aging and a Claude D. Pepper Geriatric Research and Training Center Faculty Development Award, National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland (Drs Mangione and Gutierrez); and Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc, New York, New York, and the Epidemiology Unit Fund (Dr Seddon). Dr Seddon is a recipient of the Lew R. Wasserman Merit Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc.