Vision-Related Quality of Life and Seasonal Affective Disorder in Patients with Glaucoma and Macular Degeneration

• Published in: Vision (Basel) Vol. 6; no. 2; p. 32
• Main Authors: Szulborski, Kira J, Prosniewski, Miranda D, Anjum, Sidrah, Alwreikat, Amer Mosa, Aquino, Patrick R, Ramsey, David J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 14-06-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Age; Diabetic retinopathy; Emotions; Factor analysis; Glaucoma; Macular degeneration; Mental depression; moderate vision loss; Multiple regression analysis; Patients; Prediction models; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Seasonal affective disorder; Seasonal variations; Vision; vision-related quality of life; visual function questionnaire; Visual perception; United States > US; visual function questionnaire; seasonal pattern assessment questionnaire; vision-related quality of life; glaucoma; moderate vision loss; seasonal affective disorder; macular degeneration
• DOI: 10.3390/vision6020032
• EISSN: 2411-5150

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is characterized by depressive episodes related to changes in the seasons. Patients with severe vision loss are at an increased risk of SAD. This study seeks to determine the extent to which patients with moderate vision loss report symptoms of SAD. In this cross-sectional, comparative case series, the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) and the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-39) were used to screen 111 patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and/or primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). A multiple regression analysis was performed to create a predictive model for SAD based on the Global Seasonality Score (GSS) using the VFQ-39. Subjects who reported symptoms of SAD (GSS > 8) had lower vision-related quality of life (composite score: 57.2 versus 73.2, p < 0.001). Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the items on the VFQ-39 split into two distinct dimensions that together accounted for 63.2% of the total variance in the GSS. One group of questions addressed vision-related problems; the other group comprised questions related to the quality of life. Whereas this model successfully identified patients with vision loss at risk of SAD, a model restricted to the questions available on the shorter, widely used VFQ-25 instrument did not reliably identify patients at risk of SAD.