To Carry out a low vision quality of life questionnaire and to evaluate subjective quality of life of low-vision patients.

The subject were 250 patients whose visual acuity was between hand motion and 0.3 among the patients at our clinic. The normal control group included 60 patients. After a review of the literature, we selected a useful questionnaire to assess quality of life in low vision patients and translated the questionnaire into Korean. The questionnaire used had 25 items concerning low vision and each question was multiple-choice, and the sum of the total points was used to assess of the quality of life.

The range of scores was from 0 to 125 points (the higher the score, the higher the quality of life). Fifty-one patients among 250 patients in the low vision group replied to our questionnaire. Fifty patients among 60 patients in the control group replied. The average low vision quality of life (LVQOL) score for patients with low vision (67.3±26.7) was significantly lower than the average score of those with normal vision (114±9.72). There was no statistically significant difference between the average score of patients questioned by mail versus telephone

The score of low vision patients was significantly lower than that of the control group, so this questionnaire can be applied to low vision patients specifically to evaluate quality of life. Optimally, the the questionnaire shoud be administered before and after the low vision consultation. The comparision of prerehabilitation score with postrehabilitation score might be helpful to evaluate the quality of life in a post rehabilitation state.