ABSTRACT
Purpose:
To evaluate the quality of life of children with strabismus and understand their consequences in the functional and psychosocial aspects of the childhood.
Methods:
A semi-structured interview adapted of Adult Strabismus-20 questionnaire was conducted with parents or the legal responsible person of children aged between 3 and 13 years old attended at the public health care. A likert-scale of five points was used to measure the impact of strabismus in childhood, from psychosocial and functional aspects.
Results:
97 children were included in the study. 61,4% of the children had esotropia (ET), while 35.9% had exotropia (XT). In each group, the magnitude of deviation was classified in smaller (<) or equal/greater (≥) then 30 prismatic diopters. When analyzing the functional and the psychosocial scores of the groups separated by the type of strabismus and magnitude of deviation, the average score of the group with esotropia and the patients with larger deviations were worse. The correlation value between the psychosocial and functional scores was 200.656 (p <0.01).
Conclusion:
Strabismus in childhood is associated with many negative effects. These consequences should be considered when deciding for surgical treatment on early ages. The strabismus treatment may change positively how these children perceive themselves, resulting in benefits on quality of life from both the functional and psychosocial perspectives.
Keywords:
Strabismus; Quality of life; Child; Visual function; Surveys and questionnaires