Quality of life in glaucoma patients: comparison between public health system and private practice

Purpose: To evaluate the quality of life of glaucoma patients comparing public health system, and private practice, through the questionnaire National Eye Institute 25-Item Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ). Methods: A cross-sectional study, developed through the application of NEI-VFQ questionnaire in 83 nonconsecutive glaucoma patients at different stages of the disease, and 51 from public health system, and 32 patients from private clinic. Results: Statistically significant difference between groups was demonstrated in subdomains related to the "general health", "general vision", "ocular pain", "near activities", "distance activities", "mental health" and "role difficulties" no significant difference was demonstrated in "social functioning", "dependency", "driving", "color vision" and "peripheral vision". Regarding the overall score given by the questionnaire statistical difference was observed with an average of 73.13 in the public institutions and 86.07 in the private practice. Conclusion: The impact on quality of life was higher in patients from the public institution when compared to those of the private practice through the NEI-VFQ questionnaire.