Holistic Mixed Approaches to Capture the Real Life of Children With Rare Eye Diseases

Holistic Mixed Approaches to Capture the Real Life of Children With Rare Eye Diseases

Rare Eye Diseases (RED) are the leading cause of severe visual impairment/ blindness (SVI/B) in children in Europe. This sensory disability with its accompanying psychological distress hugely impacts their lives and their families. Understanding this impact, at a patient centred level, is key in care, in shared decision making, in developing therapies, and in improving social integration and participation about the standard rules of the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) (prevention, non-discrimination, equal opportunities, accessibility, etc.). However, current tools to evaluate vision related (VR) quality of life (QoL) VR-QoL disregard age and cultural differences. There is a lack knowledge on how the disease matters at child's level. Instruments capable of yielding high-quality data, psychometrically robust and comply with regulatory requirements remain to be developed.

To fill this gap, SeeMyLife will use multilevel concurrent mixed method research combining quantitative studies and qualitative studies. The quantitative approach is based on (i) cross culturally translated validated VR-QoL questionnaires for children and teenagers (Functional Vision Questionnaire for Children and Young People - FVQ-CYP and Vision-related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Children and Young People - VQoL-CYP) and (ii) on caregiver's questionnaires addressing participation and environment (Participation and Environment Measure - Children and Youth - PEM-CY). To fully capture the picture of the child/teenager personal life the investigators will reinforce their investigations by in depth qualitative socio-anthropologic study with semi directive field interviews and fieldwork (to observe closely the living conditions of the children) to address how their impairment affects their wellbeing, social integration, and how they feel about medical and social interventions. Data analysis will use an integrated mixed method strategy to validate the quantitative tools and deliver a holistic QoL transnational tool.

The SeeMyLife project will provide (i) robust patient self-reported tools that will be then used in care and research (especially with the rise in novel therapies) as a standard as well as (ii) highly awaited knowledge about the SVI/B patient's position within his own life course, within his family and in relation to health and social care actors.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children (age 8-12) and teenagers (age 13-18) with various levels of visual impairment defined according to World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 - WHO ICD 10 [best-corrected visual acuity ≤ 0.3 decimal or ≤ 6/18], and their parents/caregivers.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children, teenagers, and caregivers:

  1. who lack the ability to respond in a reliable way to the questions on how they feel about their visual impairment (patients with mild intellectual or cognitive deficiency may be able to reply accurately as opposed to cases with severe intellectual disability)
  2. with functional or non-ophthalmic reasons of visual impairment
  3. unable to provide consent/assent;
  4. who do not speak/read the language