Relationship between peripheral visual field loss and vision-related quality of life in patients with retinitis pigmentosa

Purpose To determine the vision-related quality of life (VRQOL) with the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI VFQ-25) in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and to examine the relationship between VRQOL and peripheral visual field defects. Design Prospective study. Methods The Japanese version of the NEI VFQ-25 was used to study 40 patients with typical RP whose visual acuity was >= 0.7 (better than 0.15 in log MAR). For control, 40 volunteers with normal vision were studied in the same way. The peripheral visual field was evaluated by Goldmann's perimetry, and the degree of field loss was classified into seven grades. The correlation between the mean of the total composite score of the NEI VFQ-25 and the degree of the visual field loss was determined. Results The mean NEI VFQ-25 score was 68.4 in RP patients and 90.1 in normal controls. This difference was highly significant (P = 0.00004). Among RP patients, there was a significant negative correlation between the mean NEI VFQ-25 score and the degree of visual field loss (r = -0.519, P = 0.0006). Conclusion The significant correlation between the peripheral visual field loss and VRQOL score obtained with the NEI VFQ-25, indicates that a good estimate of the QOL can be determined by the degree of visual field loss in RP patients. Eye (2010) 24, 535-539; doi: 10.1038/eye.2009.176; published online 10 July 2009