Impact of Refractive Surgery on Quality of Life in Myopia Patients

시력교정수술이 근시환자의 삶의 질에 미치는 영향

Purpose: To evaluate the vision-specific Quality of Life according to modes of refractive error correction in myopia. Method: This study included subjects from two different universities in Korea during March 2005 to June 2005. The following subjects (470) were university students, university faculty members, and their immediate families; all of whom were over the age of 19 and all who had refractive error of some sort. The four focus groups consisted of 171 spectacle wearers, 154 contact lens wearers, 123 refractive surgery patients, and 22 post-refractive surgery patients who returned to wearing glasses. The study of Vision-Specific Quality of Life used QIRC - The Quality of Life Impact of refractive Correction Questionnaire, which was translated by our group from English into Korean. Using analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) and adjusting for age, sex, job, economic status, and education level, we examined and compared the QOL mean scores of the three groups (glass & contact lenses wears, refractive surgery patients, and post-refractive surgery patients who returned to wearing glasses). Results: After adjusting for major compounding variance, the research results showed the highest QOL mean score of 43.2 for the group who had received refractive surgery, 37.1 for the glasses & contact lenses group, and 33.4 for patients who had returned to wearing glasses after refractive surgery. There were significant differences between the three groups (p=0.001). Conclusion: Refractive surgery has shown a significant contribution to improve the QOL in myopia patients. However, upon our investigation, patients who underwent refractive surgery and returned to wearing glasses had a lower QOL compared to non-refractive surgery patients who wore glasses/contact lenses. Upon concluding our studies that shows that refractive surgery does not always conclusively bring higher QOL, we would like patients to carefully consider their options before undergoing refractive surgery in the future.

시력교정(라식, 라섹, 엑시머)수술이 근시환자의 삶의 질에 미치는 영향에 대하 기존 연구들이 있었으나, 수술을 받은 환자들을 대상으로 수술 전후의 삶의 질 변화를 조사하는데 그쳤다. 본 연구에서는 시력교정 수술을 받은 환자들과 수술을 받지 않고 안경이나 콘택트렌즈를 계속 착용하는 사람들의 삶의 질을 비교 분석하였다. 근시환자 470명에 시력관련 삶의 질을 평가하기 위하여 QIRC(The Quality of Life Impact of Refractive Correction)설문지를 한국어 번역판을 개발하여 사용하였다. 공분산분석(ANCOVA)을 이용하여 주요혼란변수를 보정 한 후 안경 및 콘택트렌즈 착용 자, 시력교정수술을 받은 자. 그리고 수술 후 안경을 재 착용하는 자 등 세집단간의 삶의 질을 비교한 결과 시력교정수술을 받은 군은 안경이나 콘택트렌즈로 교정을 받은 군에 비해서 삶의 질이 유의하게 높았다. 그러나 수술 후 근시로 이행하여 안경을 재 착용하게된 군의 삶의 질은 수술을 하지 않은 군보다 더 삶의 질이 낮은 것으로 조사되었다. 시력교정수술이 근시환자의 삶의 질에 미치는 영향을 평가하기 위해서는 시력교정수술 후에도 다시 안경을 착용해야 하는 경우 수술 전보다 삶의 질이 더 낮아질 수 있다는 점을 고려하여야 할 것으로 보인다.