Responsiveness of the quality of life impact of refractive correction(QIRC) questionnaire, Greek version

Poster Details

First Author: A.Meidani GREECE

Co Author(s):    C. Tzavara   Y. Toyntas           

Abstract Details

Purpose:

This study was intented to evaluate the responsiveness of the Greek version of the Quality of life Impact of Refractvive Correction(QIRC) questionnaire to surgical correction of refractive error.

Setting:

Centre for Health Services Research, Medical School,University of Athens, Greece.

Methods:

The Greek version of (QIRC) Questionnaire was self-administered by 92 subjects before and 5-6 months after a surgical correction of myopia (LASIK with femtosecond laser flap creation). Subjects aged 18 to 39 years with myopia (range -0.75 to -8.5D) had corrected distance visual acuity of logMAR 0.2 or better in the worse eye. The Greek version of (QIRC) Questionnaire was scored with Rasch analysis. Student’s t-tests were used for the comparison of normally distributed variables. Comparisons before and after the surgery were made using Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Responsiveness to change was evaluated by using the effect size(ES). Multiple regression analysis was used to determine factors associated with change in quality of life. Independent factors were gender,age, preoperative refractive error, visual acuity before surgery,level of general health and preoperative QIRC score.

Results:

All items of the QIRC Questionnaire as well as the total score showed statistically significant improvement after surgery (p<0.001) and responsiveness to change of all items was large.The effect size concerning total score was 2.8 for men and 2.9 for women. Multiple analysis revealed that patients with lower QIRC baseline score and those with better visual acuity before surgery had better improvement in quality of life after surgery. It was also revealed that the better the level of of general health before surgery the less the improvement in quality of life after surgery.

Conclusions:

QIRC is responsive with large statistically changes in all scales after surgery.Preoperative QIRC score, visual acuity before surgery and the level of general health are predictive factors of the magnitude to change.Financial discosure:0 FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE?: No