[Assessing vision-related quality of life in children with bilateral congenital cataracts].

PURPOSE: To assess vision-related quality of life in children with bilateral congenital cataracts, using the recently developed Children's Visual Function Questionnaire (CVFQ).

METHODS

CVFQ has two presentations, one for children under 3 years of age and the other for older children, and is divided in six subscales--general health; general vision; competence; personality; family impact and treatment. From those, a composite score can also be calculated. The CVFQ was applied in the hospital setting to parents or other caretakers by personal interview. The subscale scores were compared for control group (n=32--normal vision) versus congenital cataract group (n=16 no visual impairment, n=10--mild visual impairment and n=11--severe visual impairment). For analysis, t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed.

RESULTS

All quality of life subscales presented low scores for children with bilateral congenital cataracts. Congenital bilateral cataract scores were lower than those of the control group for all subscales. Competence subscale in the experimental group was significantly lower in the comparison with visual impairment severity (F=5.1, p=0.01; Tukey test p<0.01) as well as the composite score (F=5.4, p=0.01; Tukey test p=0.01/0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Bilateral congenital cataracts influence vision-related quality of life of children as confirmed by low scores in all subscales assessed by the CVFQ with emphasis on the competence subscale. This instrument should be incorporated in the clinical assessment of children with bilateral cataracts as a measure of the impact of visual impairment in their quality of life.