Vision-related quality of life in herpetic anterior uveitis patients

We investigated the vision-related quality of life (VR-QOL) and the prevalence and severity of depression in patients with herpetic anterior uveitis (AU). This study was conducted in 2012 at the ophthalmology department of the University Medical Center of Groningen (tertiary referral center). We selected patients from an existing uveitis database, all eligible patients were approached. Thirty-six of 66 (55%) patients with herpetic AU (herpes simplex virus or varicella zoster virus) participated, patients were 18 years or older. The diagnosis was made by clinical presentation or a positive anterior chamber tap. All patients received an information letter, informed consent form, National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire-25 (NEI VFQ-25), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Social Support List - Interactions (SSL-I), Social Support List - Discrepancies (SSL-D) and an additional questionnaire for gathering general information. Medical records were reviewed for clinical characteristics. Analyses were conducted on various patient and ocular characteristics. We compared our NEI VFQ-25 scores with those previously found in the literature. Our main outcome measures were VR-QOL, prevalence and severity of depression, social support and various patient and ocular characteristics that could influence the VR-QOL. We found that the NEI VFQ-25 mean overall composite score (OCS) was 88.1±10.6. Compared with other ocular diseases our OCS is relatively high, but lower than that found in a normal working population. The mean general health score was 59.0±19.0; this score is lower than in patients with other ocular diseases, except for untreated Behçet's patients. Depression was scarce, with only one patient (2.8%) having a moderate depression (BDI-II score of 21). We concluded that herpetic AU affects the VR-QOL in a moderate way. The prevalence of depression in our group of herpetic AU patients was low and therefore does not seem to indicate a need for specific screening and intervention measures in these patients.