Childhood visual impairment and health-related quality of life in Ghana: evidence from a cross-sectional study

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BACKGROUND: Although visual impairment (VI) is known to affect children's development, there is limited evidence on how VI influences health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among children in Ghana. This study aimed to assess the relationship between childhood VI and HRQoL. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among children aged 2 to 18 years in selected districts of the Ashanti Region, Ghana. Comprehensive ocular assessments including visual acuity (VA), refraction, and anterior and posterior segment evaluations were performed. Health-related quality of life was measured using the PedsQL 4.0 across physical, emotional, social, and school functioning domains. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent-sample t-tests, and linear regression. RESULTS: A total of 581 children participated (mean ± SD age: 8.64 ± 4.00 years), with females representing 53.0% of the sample. Both child-reported and parent-reported scores showed significantly reduced HRQoL among children with VI across all PedsQL domains compared with children without VI, with school (p < 0.001) and emotional (p = 0.005) functions of child-reported showing statistical significance. Presenting VI was a significant predictor of poor overall HRQoL in both simple (β= -10.351, p < 0.001) and multiple linear regression models (β= -5.650, p = 0.016). No significant associations (p > 0.05) were found between HRQoL and sociodemographic variables, including sex, age, ethnicity, work status, and health insurance. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood VI is associated with substantial reductions in multiple dimensions of HRQoL. These findings underscore the need to strengthen early detection, clinical management, and school-based vision support services to improve pediatric eye care in Ghana.