Development and Psychometric Properties of the Chronic Uveitis-Specific Quality of Life Instrument for Patients with Chronic Uveitis.

PURPOSE: To develop and assess psychometric properties of a disease-specific quality of life (QOL) assessment tool for patients with chronic uveitis. METHODS: The initial 42-item chronic uveitis-related QOL questionnaire (CUQOL) was developed by literature review, semi-structured interviews, and expert consultation. Further development and assessment of the CUQOL were performed using Classic Test Theory and Rasch analysis. RESULTS: The CUQOL version 1.0 was constructed with 28 items in five dimensions. The five subscales satisfied the requirements of unidimensionality, local independence, and threshold ordering. Cronbach's α coefficient for overall and each scale of the CUQOL 1.0 ranged from 0.75 to 0.94, with test-retest intraclass correlation ranging from 0.95 to 0.99. The CUQOL 1.0 has satisfactory convergent validity (r = 0.41-0.82), reasonable known group validity (p < .05), and good responsiveness (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: The CUQOL 1.0 is reliable and vaild for evaluating the QOL of patients with chronic uveitis.

Demographic and clinical features of pediatric uveitis and scleritis at a tertiary referral center in China.

BACKGROUND: To analyse demographic, clinical features, treatment and therapeutic outcomes of pediatric uveitis and scleritis patients. SUBJECTS: The clinical records of pediatric uveitis and scleritis cases between January 2012 and December 2020 at a tertiary uveitis service center in Tianjin Medical University Eye Hospital (TMUEH) were reviewed. RESULTS: In total, 209 patients (337 eyes) were included, 49.3% were male. The median onset age was 9.0 (IQR, 7.0-12.0) years. Chronic uveitis and scleritis accounted for 86.1%. Panuveitis (29.2%), anterior uveitis(29.2%), and intermediate uveitis (22.0%) were the most common presentations. The most common diagnoses were idiopathic (71.3%), JIA (8.1%), and infectious uveitis (4.8%). At baseline, 40.7% patients received oral corticosteroid therapy; during follow-up, corticosteroids (66.0%), disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (61.2%), and biologic agents (35.4%) were the mainstay. Posterior synechia (26.1%) and cataracts (25.5%) were the most common complications. In acute cases, the median best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0.99 (IQR, 0.5-1.0) at baseline and 0 (IQR, 0-0) at last follow-up; in chronic cases, the median BCVA improved from 1.09 (IQR, 0.5-2.0) to 0.27 (IQR, 0-0.5), with anterior chamber cell grade significantly declining. Ten eyes underwent cataract surgery during regular follow-up and achieved satisfactory long-term visual outcomes and decreased burden of immunosuppressants. The incidence of steroid-induced ocular hypertension was 41.0%, and children with frequent instillation of eyedrops were at high risk. CONCLUSIONS: Most cases were of chronic uveitis and scleritis requiring long-term systemic immunosuppressive therapies in pediatric uveitis and scleritis in China. Good management of complications is important for long-term prognosis.