Dry Eye Disease: Impact on Quality of Life and Vision

Dry eye disease (DED) is a growing public health concern causing ocular discomfort, fatigue, and visual disturbance that interferes with quality of life (QoL), including aspects of physical, social, and psychological functioning, daily activities, and workplace productivity. This article assesses the current understanding of the impact of DED on QoL and vision. The full impact of DED on a patient’s QoL is not easily quantifiable, but several methods and techniques have been evaluated to measure the decreased quality of vision from DED, and a number of questionnaires have been developed to quantify the impact of DED on various aspects of patient QoL. We summarize available evidence on the impact of DED from a review of published literature.