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Findings of a Multicountry Study

Gisèle Soubrane, MD; Alan Cruess, MD; Andrew Lotery, MD; Daniel Pauleikhoff, MD; Jordi Monès, MD; Xiao Xu, PhD; Gergana Zlateva, PhD; Ronald Buggage, MD; John Conlon, PhD; Thomas F. Goss, PharmD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2007;125(9):1249-1254.

Objective  To describe the burden of bilateral neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NV-AMD) on patient-reported functioning and health resource utilization.

Methods  A cross-sectional study of 401 patients with bilateral NV-AMD and 471 elderly control subjects without AMD was conducted in 5 countries. Subjects completed a telephone survey, including the National Eye Institute 25-Item Visual Function Questionnaire, the EuroQol instrument, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and history of falls, fractures, and health care resource utilization.

Results  The mean age for patients with NV-AMD was 78.1 years, and 65% were women. The patients reported 45% worse vision-related functioning, 13% worse overall well-being, and 30% more anxiety and 42% more depression symptoms than controls after adjusting for covariates (all, P < .001). The effect of NV-AMD was also observed as a doubled fall rate (16% vs 8% [P < .001]) and a quadrupled need for assistance with daily activities (29% vs 7% [P < .001]) in the patients compared with controls.

Conclusions  The evidence of extensive decline in quality of life and increased need of daily living assistance for patients with NV-AMD compared with a control population substantiates the need for new treatments that prevent vision loss and progression to blindness.

Author Affiliations: Department of Ophthalmology, University Paris XII, Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal de Créteil, Créteil, France (Dr Soubrane); Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (Dr Cruess); Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, England (Dr Lotery); Department of Ophthalmology, St Franziskus Hospital, Münster, Germany (Dr Pauleikhoff); Instituto de Microcirugia Ocular de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Dr Monès); Covance Market Access Services Inc, Gaithersburg, Maryland (Drs Xu and Goss); Pfizer Ophthalmics, New York, New York (Drs Zlateva and Buggage); and Covance Inc, Princeton, New Jersey (Dr Conlon).

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