The Quality of Life Impact of Acute Uveitis: A Prospective Study

To evaluate the impact on quality of life of acute uveitis diagnosis and management.

50 patients with acute uveitis were followed prospectively for three months in a tertiary hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Vision-related (VR-) and health-related (HR-) quality of life (QoL) were respectively assessed by NEI-VFQ-25 and SF-36 questionnaires at the initial consultation and after three months. Associations between the questionnaire's subscale item scores with clinical/demographical data were assessed.

After generalized linear models, in the initial QoL evaluation lower visual acuity (VA) and unemployment/retirement were associated with lower scores in both questionnaires, while bilateral uveitis was associated with NEI-VFQ-25 questionnaire only and older age with SF-36 only. At the three-month QoL evaluation lower VA and older age were associated with lower scores and VA improvement with higher scores in both questionnaires and unemployment/retirement was associated with lower SF-36 score only. When evaluating the variation between the initial QoL scores and those after three months, older age was associated with lower VR- and HR-QoL improvement, while short interval between referral and the first appointment, higher final VA and VA improvement were associated with VR-QoL upgrade. Bilateral uveitis was associated with lower HR-QoL improvement.

Older age and worse VA have a significant negative impact on VR-QoL and HR-QoL, while VA improvement has positive impact. Anatomic classification and etiology of uveitis did not seem to impact on variation of QoL during diagnosis and treatment of acute uveitis, as well as education level and self-reported color.