The impact of diabetic retinopathy on quality of life: Qualitative findings from an item bank development project

Abstract

Purpose Assessing the efficacy of treatment modalities for diabetic retinopathy (DR) from the patient's perspective is restricted due to a lack of a comprehensive patientreported outcome measure. We are developing a DRspecific quality of life (QoL) item bank, and we report here on the qualitative results from the first phase of this project. Methods Eight focus groups and 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 57 patients with DR. The sessions were transcribed verbatim and iteratively analysed using the constant comparative method and NVIVO software. Results Participants had a median age of 58 years (range 27-83 years). Twenty-seven (47%) participants had proliferative DR in the b..