Quality of life and depression among patients with high myopia in Nigeria: a cross sectional study

AIM: To evaluate the quality of life (QOL) and level of depression among participants with high myopia in Nigeria and the demographic factors associated with these outcomes.METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 adult participants with high myopia (defined as refractive error <=-5.00 D or worse, and uncorrected visual acuity worse than 6/18 in the better seeing eye) attending ophthalmology centres in Nigeria from 2 October 2021 to 30 August 2022. The means and standard deviations were calculated for each of the four domains of World Health Organization Quality of life scale (WHOQOL-BREF) using the transformed scores. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scale was used to assess the level of depression.RESULTS: The highest and the lowest mean scores of WHOQOL-BREF domains were found for the psychological and physical health domains (mean percentage scores were 67.0 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 64.1-68.9] and :55.3 (95%CI 51.8-58.8, P<0.001), respectively. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences in physical health with educational status (higher among those with tertiary education: mean difference 0.9, 95%CI-0.2-2.1; P=0.049), differences in psychological health with working status (higher among those who were working 1.2, 95%CI 0.3-2.1; P=0.012). Also, the result showed a statistically significant association between environmental health and marital status (higher among non-married: 1.7, 95% CI-0.9-2.3; P=0.012) while overall health was associated with place of residence (higher in urban areas: 2.3, 95%CI 1.2-3.5; P=0.024). For depression, one in every nine participants reported major depressive symptom, mostly younger people (aged 16-29 vs 30-49y: 17.0% vs 0, P=0.019), and slightly more women than men (14.3% vs 0, P=0.064). There were significant negative correlations between the depression scores and psychological health (r=-0.48, P<0.001), physical health (r=-0.29, P=0.002), social and relationship (r=-0.49, P<0.001), environmental (r=-0.48, P<0.001) and overall health (r=-0.49, P<0.001)CONCLUSION: People with high myopia have a relatively moderate QOL, but poor physical health, particularly the younger age group, and women who are more likely to experience clinically relevant depression. Eye care professionals should consider possible referrals for counselling for people with high myopia.