RESUMEN
Dry eye disease (DED) has a higher prevalence than many important systemic disorders like cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus, representing a significant quality of life burden for the affected patients. It is a common reason for consultation in general eye clinics worldwide. Nowadays, the diagnostic and therapeutic approach at the high corneal and ocular surface specialty level should be reserved for cases of severe and chronic dry eye disease associated with systemic autoimmune diseases or complicated corneal and ocular surface pathologies. In such cases, the diagnostic and therapeutic approach is often complex, elaborate, time-consuming, and costly due to the use of extensive dry eye questionnaires, noninvasive electronic diagnostic equipment, and clinical laboratory and ancillary tests. However, other eye care specialists attend a fair amount of DED cases; therefore, its diagnosis, classification, and management should be simple, practical, achievable, and effective. Considering that many patients attending non-specialized dry eye clinics would benefit from better ophthalmological attention, we decided to elaborate a practical DED classification system based on disease severity to help clinicians discriminate cases needing referral to subspecialty clinics from those they could attend. Additionally, we propose a systematic management approach and general management considerations to improve patients' therapeutic outcomes according to disease severity.
RESUMEN
PURPOSE: To translate and validate a Spanish-language adaptation of the 5-Item Dry Eye Questionnaire for the Mexican population. METHODS: Based on the MAPI Institute guidelines, the linguistic validation procedures consisted of four steps. Every step was reviewed by the committee. The translated validated questionnaire was applied to 25 Mexican subjects. The questionnaires were completed by the same subjects at three time points, 8 h apart on the same day and then 3 days later. Sensitivity and specificity of the DEQ-5 to predict DE signs was subsequently estimated in 200 patients see in the Asociación para Evitar la Ceguera ophthalmology clinic. RESULTS: During the forward translation step analysis, the committee decided to change the severity scale, as the words "constantly" and "frequently" are synonymous in Spanish, so it was modified by changing "constantly" to "always" for better understanding. Overall, the intra-test intra-class correlation coefficient from tests administered on the same day was 0.9 (95% CI 0.77-0.95, p = 0.0005). The intra-test intra-class correlation coefficient from tests administered 3 days apart was 0.9 (95% CI 0.88-0.97, p = 0.0005). When applying the questionnaire to 200 patients seen in an eye clinic, we found a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 31% for a DEQ-5 score of ≥ 6, against 2 or more positive signs of dry eye. CONCLUSION: MAPI methodology proved to be a reliable strategy for the transcultural Dry Eye Questionnaire for translation from English to Spanish for the Mexican population.
