Association of Visual Acuity with Eye-Related Quality of Life and Functional Vision Across Childhood Eye Conditions

Purpose: We evaluated relationships between visual acuity (VA) and eye-related quality of life and functional vision in children, across a spectrum of pediatric eye conditions, using the Pediatric Eye Questionnaire (PedEyeQ). Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Three hundred ninety-seven children (5-11 years of age) with an eye condition and 104 visually normal control subjects completed the Child PedEyeQ (functional vision, bothered by eyes/vision, social, and frustration/worry domains). One parent for each child completed the Proxy PedEyeQ (same domains as child plus eye care) and parent PedEyeQ (impact on parent and family, worry about child's eye condition, worry about child's self-perception and interactions, and worry about functional vision domains). Each domain was Rasch-scored and Spearman rank correlations were calculated to evaluate relationships between better-seeing-eye and worse-seeing-eye VA and PedEyeQ domain score. Results: There was a significant relationship between poorer better-seeing-eye VA and lower (worse) PedEyeQ score on 2 of 4 child domains (e.g., functional vision, r = −0.1474; P = .005), on 2 of 5 proxy PedEyeQ domains (e.g., functional vision, r = −0.2183; P < .001), and on 2 of 4 parent PedEyeQ domains (e.g., impact on parent and family, r = −0.1607; P = .001). Worse-seeing-eye VA was associated with lower PedEyeQ scores across all child, proxy and parent domains (P < .01 for each) with the exception of the child social domain (P = .15). Conclusions: Both better-seeing-eye and worse-seeing-eye VA were associated with functional vision and eye-related quality of life in children, assessed using the PedEyeQ, although other factors may also influence relationships. These data further validate using the PedEyeQ across pediatric eye conditions.