Abstract
I was interested to read the review article on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by Tariq Ayoub and Nishal Patel. 1 While the article discussed in great detail the pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of AMD, the authors failed to mention the effect of all this on a patient's quality of life, thus supporting the findings of Stein et al. 2 that clinicians undervalue or are not well aware of the broad impact of AMD on health-related quality of life.
In fact, there is significant evidence that AMD reduces quality of life 3 and that in severe forms of the disease this is comparable to a patient with end-stage prostate cancer. 4 Furthermore, measures of quality of life, e.g. MacDQoL, 5 can be (and have been) used as outcome measures to determine the effectiveness of various interventions, including many mentioned in the review article.
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