[Awareness and quality of life in patients with glaucoma]

To test the Czech version of a validated questionnaire in assessing health-related quality of life in patients with glaucoma and also determine the level of understanding of their disease.

Quality of life was assessed using the NEI-VFQ 25 (National Eye Institute - Visual Function Questionnaire) in 20 patients with open-angle glaucoma. Results of the questionnaire were processed by standardized methods and a score between 0 and 100 was assigned to each of the 12 subscales, where 100 represents the best possible score on the scale and 0 represents the worst. The awareness of patients about glaucoma was elicited by 9 questions concerning the origin, course, diagnostic methods and prognosis of glaucoma.

The lowest scores in our study group were associated with the subscales of general vision (61.4 +/- 19.7), mental health (61.4 +/- 17.4), role limitations (72.1 +/- 26.7), and dependency (58.3 +/- 23). Our knowledge inquiry revealed poor level of knowledge about glaucoma in our study group.

in our study, the NEI-VFQ 25 proved to be useful and the scores comparable to the results published abroad. The results of our knowledge inquiry suggest that there is an urgent need for patients to receive more information. Patients who are more knowledgeable of their condition are more likely to be adherent to treatment.