The Vision Related Quality of Life and Anxiety-Depression Levels of Age-Related Macular Degeneration During COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract Purpose: To evaluate anxiety, depression status, and vision related quality of life (QoL) in patient with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: Seventy-one voluntary patients with AMD and demografic variables matched 36 healthy controls were compared in this study. All the subjects were evaluated with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD-A and HAD-D) and National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ-25). Results: There were no statistically significant difference in HADS-A and HADS-D between the AMD group and controls (p<0.05) When the patients with AMD were assigned to two distinct groups according to binocular visual acuity, proportion of patients above the HADS cut-off points for anxiety did not differ between the groups (p=0.208) and 55.6 % of patients above the HADS cut-off points of depression in low vision AMD group were significantly differ from other groups (p=0,022). The statistically significant lower means of NEI-VFQ-25 parameters except general health and ocular pain were observed in AMD patients compared with controls (p<0.05).Conclusions: The AMD patients had lower vision related QoL scores during COVID-19 pandemic and it is recommended psychiatric counseling opportunities is needed for AMD patients having low binocular visual acuity.