Prevalence and nature of self-reported visual complaints in people with Parkinson’s disease—Outcome of the Screening Visual Complaints questionnaire

by Iris van der Lijn, Gera A. de Haan, Fleur E. van der Feen, Famke Huizinga, Catharina Stellingwerf, Teus van Laar, Joost Heutink

Visual complaints can have a vast impact on the quality of life of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). In clinical practice however, visual complaints often remain undetected. A better understanding of visual complaints is necessary to optimize care for people with PD and visual complaints. This study aims at determining the prevalence of visual complaints experienced by a large outpatient cohort of people with PD compared to a control group. In addition, relations between visual complaints and demographic and disease-related variables are investigated.

The Screening Visual Complaints questionnaire (SVCq) screened for 19 visual complaints in a cohort of people with idiopathic PD (n = 581) and an age-matched control group without PD (n = 583).

People with PD experienced significantly more complaints than controls, and a greater impact of visual complaints on their daily lives. Complaints that were most common (‘often/always’) were unclear vision (21.7%), difficulty reading (21.6%), trouble focusing (17.1%), and blinded by bright light (16.8%). Largest differences with controls were found for double vision, needing more time to see and having trouble with traffic participation due to visual complaints. Age, disease duration, disease severity, and the amount of antiparkinsonian medication related positively to the prevalence and severity of visual complaints.

Visual complaints are highly prevalent and occur in great variety in people with PD. These complaints progress with the disease and have a large impact on the daily lives of these people. Standardized questioning is advised for timely recognition and treatment of these complaints.