Background: Substantial challenges have been reported in China in terms of the large number of adult patients with strabismus and their poor quality of life. Quality of life is a cultural concept that varies according to personal feelings and perceptions, and it is influenced by physical, psychological and social factors. However, to date, there has been no mixed-method research of the quality of life of Chinese adult patients with strabismus, and no conceptual model has been reported. This study aimed to utilize mixed methods to explore the influence of strabismus on health-related quality of life in Chinese adult patients and to develop a conceptual model.
Methods: Thirty adult patients with strabismus from three tertiary hospitals in China participated in the interview. In-depth one-to-one interviews were semi-structured and addressed strabismus-related symptoms and the impacts on the participants' quality of life. Transcripts were analysed to identify themes. A self-designed questionnaire was distributed to 448 patients, 437 of whom returned valid questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and x2 test were conducted.
Results: Five themes were revealed regarding the impact of strabismus on patient quality of life: appearance, daily activities, personal development, social interaction, and emotions. In the survey, the top three symptoms (n ≥ 70%) rated by the participants were monocular vision, eye fatigue and physical discomfort. Compared to those without diplopia, the patients who suffered diplopia more often reported experiencing the symptoms of blurred vision, monocular vision, physical discomfort, eye fatigue, cannot estimate depth well and increasing deviation size (all p < 0.05).
Conclusions: This study is the first to examine quality of life among Chinese strabismus patients using both qualitative and quantitative methods and proposing a conceptual model. Symptom burden and appearance were the two original reasons for the decreased quality of life, and they were also the triggers for strabismus patients to visit clinics and undergo surgery. The interventions to treat symptoms burden should be different between patients with and without diplopia.
Keywords: China; Qualitative research; Quality of life; Strabismus; Survey.