The Association of Dry Eye Symptoms with Socioeconomic Factors and quality of Life

Purpose: Dry eye is a common condition with significant morbidity and socioeconomic burden. The associated demographic factors that worsen utility in dry eye patients were not known. There were many questionnaire instruments advocated for dry eye documentation but none of these have been shown to correlate to quality of life (QoL). We aimed at examining the health related utility values in a group of dry eye patients and their associations.

Methods: This was a hospital based prospective cross-sectional study conducted at the dry eye clinic of Singapore National Eye Centre. Patients with dry eye symptoms were randomized to one of the two validated symptom questionnaires, Standard Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness (SPEED) or Symptom Assessment in Dry Eye (SANDE) questionnaires. All patients underwent an evaluation of socio economic factors and utility was assessed using Time-Trade-Off methodby 4 trained interviewers.