Impact of major age-related eye disorders on health-related quality of life assessed by EQ-5D: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Purpose: This study is to quantitatively estimate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) impact of major age-related eye diseases (AREDs) including cataract, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic retinopathy (DR) assessed by the EuroQoL Five-Dimensional Questionnaire (EQ-5D).

Methods: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL were searched until October 20, 2022. Studies were included if they reported the EQ-5D health utility score (HUS) or visual analogue scale (VAS) score of both AREDs patients and healthy controls. The mean difference (MD) in HUS or VAS score between cases and controls and its 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were pooled using the random-effects model. We also performed sensitivity analysis using the leaving-one-out method and subgroup analyses by sample size and race. The prevalence in reporting any problems in the five EQ-5D dimensions was summarized and compared between cases and controls using the Chi-square test.

Results: Fifteen articles involving 30,491 participants were included in this review. Pooled estimates indicated reduced HUS in AMD patients (MD = - 0.04, 95%CI - 0.07, - 0.01; P = 0.009), DR patients (MD = - 0.03, 95%CI - 0.05, - 0.01; P = 0.01), and glaucoma patients (MD = - 0.06, 95%CI - 0.10, - 0.01; P = 0.01), compared with the controls. Significantly lower EQ-5D VAS score was also observed in cataract patients (MD = - 11.33, 95%CI - 13.47, - 9.18; P < 0.001) and DR patients (MD = - 6.41, 95%CI - 10.64, - 2.18; P = 0.003). AREDs patients reported usual activities and anxiety/depression problems more frequently than the control group.

Conclusions: Our findings confirmed the HRQOL impairment caused by major AREDs including AMD, cataract, DR, and glaucoma. High-quality studies with large sample sizes are warranted to further verify our results.

Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration; Cataract; Diabetic retinopathy; Glaucoma; Health-related quality of life; Meta-analysis.