Avaliação do perfil de qualidade de vida de portadores de Ceratocone diagnosticados no Sudoeste do Paraná

Abstract

Keratoconus is a chronic ocular disease that results in the thinning of collagen fibrils of the cornea causing the thinning and protrusion of the same in cone shape, which cause haze and distinct distortions in the image. Consequently, patients with this condition have visual difficulties that can influence/determine their quality of life. The aim of this study is to evaluate and describe aspects of the quality of life of the keratoconus patients diagnosed in southwestern Paraná. After the identification of the carriers, they were interviewed and invited to participate in the research. The study was carried out through questionnaires, through telephone interviews with the patients, and also with the personal delivery of the questionnaires. The study was carried out through questionnaires, through telephone interviews with the patients, and also by active search, with personal delivery of the questionnaires. The study was conducted with 16 individuals, of both sexes, in which there was no gender predominance. When analyzing the different domains contained in the questionnaire, we can observe that in the domain of Independence Level women are more affected than men. When we tested the association between the current age and the age when the patients received the diagnosis with quality of life, in our sample, we observed that for the Health and Quality of Life domain in general, we obtained a near perfect correlation, thus indicating that the more the age advances, the better is their quality of life. In conclusion, we found a low incidence of diagnosed carriers in the southwestern region of Paraná, they are well educated about their disease, having a better perspective of life, thus being able to observe that although keratoconus affects the life of the people, in this population we do not observe results very negative for the questionnaire used, being necessary more studies in this area.