Purpose
To examine patient-reported outcome (PRO) in a selected group of Swedish patients about to receive anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME).
Material and methods
In this cross-sectional study, 59 patients with diabetes mellitus, who regularly visited the outpatient eye-clinics, were included. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected and the patients completed PRO measures before starting anti-VEGF treatment. PRO measures assessed eye-specific outcomes (NEI-VFQ-25) and generic health-related quality of life (SF-36).
Results
The participants consisted of 30 men and 29 women (mean age, 68.5 years); 54 (92 %) patients had type 2 diabetes; Five (9%) patients had moderate or severe visual impairment; 28 (47 %) were classified as having mild visual impairment. Some of the patients reported overall problems in their daily lives, such as with social relationships, as well as problems with impaired sight as a result of reduced distance vision.
Conclusions
Further studies are needed to investigate PRO factors related to low perceived general health in this patient population. It is important to increase our understanding of such underlying mechanisms to promote improvements in the quality of patient care.
The aim of this study was to compare self-perceived health among diabetic patients who experienced threat of blindness with those who had already gone blind. Another aim was to explore different aspects of self-care in relation to self-perceived health among the subjects. Twenty-one diabetic patients under threat of becoming blind and 23 with diabetes-related blindness agreed to participate in the study. The participants were compared with an age- and gender-matched nondiabetic reference group. Self-perceived health was measured using the 63-item Swedish Health-Related Quality of Life Survey (SWED-QUAL) questionnaire. Data on diabetes-related variables were collected from the patient's hospital records. An interview guide was created for measuring dimensions of self-care. Patients with threat of becoming blind showed better self-perceived health than blind patients, but no differences were found in comparison with the Swedish reference group. Blind patients scored lower in 6 of the 13 health domains and they reported more problems with diabetes self-care than patients with threat of becoming blind. One of the 13 health domains, role limitations due to physical health, seemed to be associated with impaired self-care although only a partial understanding could be demonstrated. The results show that blind patients need specific support to cope well with different self-care situations. A great challenge in future research in diabetes is to implement education programs suitable especially for patients who have gone blind because of diabetes.