Avaliação da importância da qualidade de vida relacionada com a visão

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that visual impairment impacts individuals' overall quality of life. Given the lack of research on this topic in Portugal, the primary objective of the present study is to collect the public's opinions on the importance of vision. Methods: A questionnaire of 36 questions was made, categorized into the following groups: Personal data (Q1-Q3), General Health (Q4-Q17), Knowledge (Q18-Q25), and Lifestyle (Q26-Q36). Quantitative statistical methods were used to analyze the responses. Results: There were 575 respondents with ages 18 or older. Most respondents answered that losing their vision would significantly impact their quality of life, more so than losing their hearing, memory, speech, or limb. As for the worst loss of sense, most participants said blindness, with respondents over 40 years old considering this more than their younger counterparts (92.9-93 .0% vs . 82.8-87.6%, p=0.035), followed by loss of speech (4.9%), hearing loss (4.2%) and loss of smell or taste (0.2%). Conclusions: It is considered that the loss of vision would lead to losing independence, decreased productivity, and a lower quality of life. The results also show that the population is often uninformed, or even ill-informed, about the prevalence of and risk factors for ocular diseases, including those leading to irreversible blindness. It is important to raise awareness and improve education amongst the general population about eye health and diseases.