Effect of Nonoverlapping Visual Field Defects on Vision-related Quality of Life in Glaucoma

Glaucoma patients may be considered to have normal vision as long as each point of visual space is perceived by at least 1 eye, that is, with an intact binocular visual field (VF). We aimed to investigate the effect of nonoverlapping VF defects on vision-related quality of life (VR-QoL) in glaucoma.

Cross-sectional study.

Two hundred sixty-nine glaucoma patients and 113 controls.

We evaluated VR-QoL of glaucoma patients (n = 269) and controls (n = 113) using 4 different questionnaires (National Eye Institute visual function questionnaire [NEI-VFQ-25], NEI-VFQ neuro-ophthalmology supplement, Glaucoma Quality of Life-15, and a luminance-specific questionnaire). We defined "differential VF" (DVF) as a measure of location-specific differences in the VFs of both eyes. Within the group of glaucoma patients, we analyzed the relationship between different aspects of VR-QoL and DVF using ordinal multiple regression analysis. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, integrated VF (IVF; an estimate of the binocular VF from the monocular VFs), and higher visual acuity of both eyes, and corrected for multiple hypothesis testing.

Vision-related quality of life.

Glaucoma patients had lower VR-QoL than controls. Among the glaucoma patients, DVF was significantly associated with general vision (odds ratio [OR], 0.69; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54-0.89), peripheral vision (OR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54-0.86), walking on uneven ground (OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.58-0.93), crossing the street (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.46-0.83), seeing other road users coming from the side (OR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.52-0.85), cycling during the day (OR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.46-0.89) and seeing outside on a sunny day (OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.57-0.94). In general, IVF was a stronger predictor of VR-QoL than DVF.

Nonoverlapping VF defects affect VR-QoL. Although IVF is strongly associated with VR-QoL, basing clinical decisions only on IVF leads to overlooking vision problems that patients may have.

The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.