Background: To investigate the psychometric properties of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) questionnaire in a group of patients with different eye diseases.
Methods: Cross-sectional study. All subjects completed the Portuguese version of the NEI VFQ-25 questionnaire. Another questionnaire containing a survey about clinical and demographics data was also applied. Rasch analysis was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the NEI VFQ-25.
Results: The study included 104 patients with cataract, 65 with glaucoma and 83 with age macular degeneration. Mean age was 70.7 ± 9.9 years, with 143 female (56.7%) and 109 male patients (43.2%). Mean visual acuity was 0.47 and 1.17 logMAR in the better and worse eye, respectively. According to Rasch analysis, seven items were found to misfit. Those items belonged to the following subscales: general health, social function, mental health, ocular pain and role limitations. The principal component analysis of the residuals showed that 55.5% of the variance was explained by the principal component. Eight items loaded positively onto the first contrast with a correlation higher than 0.4. These items belonged to the following subscales: near vision, distance vision, mental health and dependency. After excluding those items, we were able to isolate items from the NEI VFQ-25, related only to a visual functioning component. Finally, the principal component analysis from residuals of this revised version of the NEI VFQ-25 (items related to visual function) showed that the principal component explained 61.2% of the variance, showing no evidence of multidimensionality.
Conclusions: The Portuguese version of the NEI VFQ-25 is not a unidimensional instrument. We were able to find items that belong to a different trait, possible related to a socio-emotional component. Thus, in order to obtain psychometrically valid constructs, both the visual functioning and socio-emotional components should be analyzed separately.