ASSESSING PATIENT PREFERENCES FOR VISUAL ACUITY LOSS

描述：(申请人摘要)干预措施所提供的好处 预防或治疗视觉障碍主要体现在质量上的提高 而不是寿命长短。拟议项目的总体目标是 测量和描述各种眼病对人类健康的影响 生活质量。W将通过评估患者的 公用事业。因为公用事业是患者的量化指标 对健康状态的偏好，它们提供了一种评估程度的手段 卫生干预措施所提供的健康益处。具体地说，正式 成本效益分析等方法依赖于效用来量化 干预措施对生活质量的影响。 拟议项目的主要具体目标是描述负担 各种眼病(因此治疗和治疗的潜在好处 预防)以公用事业为单位。为了实现这一目标，我们将评估 效用、临床参数(例如，视力)和功能(例如， TH国家眼科研究所的25个问题视觉功能问卷，或 NEI VFQ)，每个患者患有六种目标眼病中的一种 (白内障、糖尿病视网膜病变、老年性黄斑变性、CMV 视网膜炎、葡萄膜炎和青光眼)，以及100名没有眼部疾病的患者 除了屈光不正。此外，我们还将调查：(1) 相似严重眼病患者之间效用的差异，(2) 不同眼病患者之间效用的差异， 调整视力和其他临床指标的差异，以及 (3)患者对眼病效用的可能预测因素，包括 与疾病相关的因素(例如，疾病的严重程度)、视力水平 功能(例如，NEI VFQ)和社会人口因素(例如， 就业)。 拟议研究中收集的数据将提供重要的资源 寻求正式评估的临床医生、政策制定者和研究人员 眼病和干预措施对生活质量的影响。理性 临床和政策决策需要权衡：健康 考虑中的干预措施的好处值得承担风险和成本吗？ 拟议的项目将提供对评估至关重要的信息。 治疗眼病的全部好处，因此将有助于 患者和临床医生评估治疗的风险和益处 眼疾。

DESCRIPTION:(Applicant's Abstract) The benefit offered by interventions that prevent or treat visual impairments primarily reflect gains in quality rather than length of life. The broad objective of the proposed project is to measure and characterize the impact of a variety of eye diseases on quality of life. W will measure quality of life by assessing patients' utilities. Because utilities are quantitative measures of patient preferences for health states, they offer a means to evaluate the magnitude of health benefit offered by health interventions. Specifically, formal methods such as cost-effectiveness analysis rely on utilities to quantify the effects of interventions on quality of life. The primary specific aim of the proposed project is to describe the burden of various eye diseases (and thus the potential benefit of treatment and prevention) in units of utility. To accomplish this aim, we will assess utilities, clinical parameters (e.g., visual acuity) and functioning (e.g., th National Eye Institute's 25 question Visual Functioning Questionnaire, or NEI VFQ) in 600 patients, each with one of six target eye diseases (cataract, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, CMV retinitis, uveitis and glaucoma), and in 100 patients with no eye disease other than refractive error. In addition, we will investigate: (1) the variation in utilities among patients with similarly severe eye disease, (2) the variation in utilities across patients with different eye diseases, adjusting for differences in visual acuity and other clinical measures, and (3) possible predictors for patients' utilities for eye disease, including disease-related factors (e.g., severity of disease), level of visual functioning (e.g., the NEI VFQ), and sociodemographic factors (e.g., employment). The data collected in the proposed study will provide an important resource fo clinicians, policy makers and researchers seeking to evaluate formally the impacts of eye disease and interventions on quality of life. Rational clinical and policy decision making requires tradeoffs: are the health benefits of the intervention under consideration worth the risks and costs? The proposed project will provide information that is essential to evaluate the full benefi of treatment of eye disease, and will therefore help patients and clinicians evaluate the risks and benefits of treatments for eye disease.