Vision-Related Quality of Life Assessment Using the NEI-VFQ-25 in Adolescents and Young Adults With a History of Congenital Cataract

Purpose: To assess vision-specific health-related quality of life in adolescents and young adults with a history of congenital cataract using the National Eye Institute 25-item Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25). Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed for patients who underwent surgery aged younger than 24 months. Those 13 years or older at follow-up were selected for inclusion. Educational attainment was determined. A control group of healthy individuals of similar age with no visual complaints also completed the questionnaire. Results: Sixteen patients with a history of unilateral cataract (mean age: 17.8 +/- 2.8 years), 22 with bilateral cataract (19.5 +/- 4.6 years), and 15 controls (17.9 +/- 2.5 years) were included in the study. The bilateral cataract group had greater difficulty with near and distance activities compared with the unilateral group, and had significantly lower vision-specific social functioning, role difficulties, mental health, and composite scores. Comparing the unilateral cataract and control groups, there was no significant difference in ocular pain, vision-specific social functioning, role difficulties, and dependency scores between both groups. Conclusion: Patients with unilateral cataract had fewer difficulties performing near and distance activities and certain vision-specific tasks than the bilateral group, but both groups were comparable in terms of general vision scores. The control group had better scores than the unilateral group in some, but not all, categories and better than the bilateral group in most. Educational achievements were high in both cataract groups. All attended main stream school and many attended university.