Anxiety and depression in Chinese patients with glaucoma and its correlations with vision-related quality of life and visual function indices: a cross-sectional study

To investigate anxiety and depression in patients with glaucoma and its correlations with vision-related quality of life (VR-QoL) and visual function indices.

A hospital-based, cross-sectional study.

Shanghai, China PARTICIPANTS: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) were administered to 446 Chinese patients with glaucoma to assess their psychological disorders, namely anxiety and depression, and VR-QoL, respectively.

Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected at the same time. Multivariate linear regression analysis was carried out to investigate the associations between VR-QoL, visual function indices and psychological disorders. Standardised partial regression analysis was used to identify the variable mostly indicative in evaluating psychological burdens.

The prevalence of anxiety and depression in Chinese patients with glaucoma was 12.11% and 25.78%, respectively. Most of the subscales and the composite score of NEI VFQ-25 were negatively associated with each parameter of anxiety and depression after adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical variables. For visual function indices, only the best-corrected visual acuity of both eyes was correlated with anxiety after adjustment. Standardised partial regression analysis further showed VR-QoL, but not the objective visual function indices, was mostly relevant to psychological disturbances.

Anxiety and depression were common in Chinese patients with glaucoma. Self-reported VR-QoL was beneficial in assessing psychological status of patients with glaucoma, while objective visual function indices provide little hint on it.