Development of an Arabic version of the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire as a tool to study eye diseases patients in Egypt

AIM: To develop and test an Arabic version of the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ-25). METHODS: NEI -VFQ -25 was translated into Arabic according to WHO translation guidelines. We enrolled adult consenting patients with bilateral chronic eye diseases who presented to 14 hospitals across Egypt from October to December 2012, and documented their clinical findings. Psychometric properties were then tested using STATA. RESULTS: We recruited 379 patients, whose mean age was (54.5 +/- 15)y. Of 46.2% were males, 227 had cataract, 31 had glaucoma, 23 had retinal detachment, 37 had diabetic retinopathy, and 61 had miscellaneous visual defects. Non -response rate and the floor and ceiling numbers of the Arabic version (ARB -VFQ -25) were calculated. Internal consistency was high in all subscales (except general health), with Cronbach -alpha ranging from 0.702 -0.911. Test -retest reliability was high (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.79). CONCLUSION: ARB-VFQ-25 is a reliable and valid tool for assessing visual functions of Arabic speaking patients. However, some questions had high non response rates and should be substituted by available alternatives. Our results support the importance of including self-reported visual functions as part of routine ophthalmologic examination.