Development of an intrument to ae viion-related quality of life in young children

Purpoe Quality of life (QOL) intrument are increaingly utilized in ophthalmological reearch. Meauring viion-related QOL in young children i complicated by contantly evolving abilitie related to normal growth and development. Our aim wa to develop viion-related QOL intrument for children in different age range ≤7 year, and to provide initial validation of thee intrument. Deign Cro-ectional tudy. Method etting Multicenter. Patient 773 pediatric patient (age ≤7 year) with a wide range of ophthalmological diagnoe. Procedure Quetionnaire. A 61-item prototype intrument with a wide variety of item wa applied to 403 conecutive patient. The uefulne of item wa evaluated a a function of age in order to derive two age-group pecific intrument and to find the age limit dividing the age group. Thu, age-pecific verion of a Childrenʹ Viual Function Quetionnaire (CVFQ) were defined for age <3 year and ≥3 year, and applied to a convenience ample of patient. Outcome ubcale core. Factor analyi helped identify underlying dimenion of the data, and correponding ubcale were defined. Validation wa provided by examining the internal conitency reliability and by exploring the aociation between core and clinical characteritic. Reult ubcale for General health, General viion, Competence, Peronality, Family impact, and Treatment were defined, with internal conitency reliabilitie ranging from 0.60 to 0.86. The aociation between ubcale core and age wa weak, wherea trong correlation were found with the level of viual impairment and type of viual diagnoi. Concluion The CVFQ aee the impact of viual impairment on children and their familie, and i expected to become a ueful tool for the pediatric viion reearch community.