Health related quality of life measures (HRQoL) in orthoptics

Health related quality of life (HRQoL) measures are used in health care to inform clinical decision-making and policy-making decisions. HRQoL is a concept that incorporates physical and functional status, emotional status, and social functioning; and may be assessed using generic or disease or condition-specific instruments. When considering the application of HRQoL instruments within ophthalmology, there are concerns that generic measures are not sensitive to the recognised symptoms of vision loss or emotional aspects of a given ophthalmic condition such as strabismus. A number of disease-specific or condition-specific measures have been designed and applied in ophthalmology. These include the Visual Function Index (VF-14); National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ: 51 and 25 item questionnaires); Impact of Visual Impairment (IVI); and the Activities of Daily Vision Scale (ADVS). However, the use of HRQoL measures in the specific field of ophthalmology is not as established. We undertook a systematic review to look at the existing HRQoL measures that could be used in the investigation and treatment of orthoptic patients.