Quality of life among prosthetic shell users – Questionnaire based

Abstract

Purpose: The aim is to determine the psychological factor, driving capability, and the influence of the device among working professionals based on questionnaire. Methods: A qualitative questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among participants of a tertiary eye care center in Chennai from March 2020 to August 2020. The questionnaire consisted of participant demographics, psychological care, driving, and prosthetic support and maintenance-related questions. The responses were recorded over telephone and analysed using SPSS Statistics. Result: About 30 participants of age 9 years and above were included after obtaining consent. The average age was found to be 38.8 ± 12.7 years with 46.7% (n = 14) males and 53.3% (n = 16) females. Anophthalmic participants exhibit a substantial change in psychological feelings following ocular prosthesis. Participants found to be motivated after the cosmetic change brought about by prosthesis, and therefore had a higher output on work factor. In terms of driving, 90% of the subjects were comfortable using protective devices for safety measures. They found greater satisfaction in customised manually built prosthesis than computerised prosthesis. The former had smooth edge finish with reduced prosthetic motility, which has made the patient gain satisfaction, improving care and maintenance, and the handling of ocular prosthesis. Conclusion: The use of ocular prosthesis was found to decrease depression, insecurity, inferiority complex with minimal difficulty in activities of daily living, and no difficulty in driving with prosthesis. The quality of life improved with the use of customised prosthetic shells.