Kvalitet života povezan sa stanjem vida kod dece uzrasta od tri do sedam godina

Research subject: Visual impairment, along with social factors, can lead to developmental difculties and can slow down the acquisition of daily life skills. Due to loosing the picture of “a perfect child”, parents of children with visual impairment may lose self-confdence, which has a negative impact on the quality of family life. Method: Te aim of this paper was to determine the quality of life associated with visual impairment in children from three to seven years of age. Children’s Visual Function Questionnaire (CVFQ) was used in this research. The questionnaire included questions related to the child’s vision and health, the influence of visual state on the child’s activities, parent’s reactions to difficulties related to the child’s visual and social functioning. The questions were divided into four subtests: Competence, Personality, Family Impact and Treatment Difficulty. The questionnaire was completed by 46 parents (29 mothers and 17 fathers) of children with visual impairment from three to seven years of age. Most children had a mild form of visual impairment (28; 60.9%), ten had low vision (21.7%), and eight were blind (17.4%). Result: Descriptive statistics used in data processing were the following: arithmetic mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum score. The significance of differences in achievements on the applied questionnaire was tested by the analysis of variance (ANOVA). It was determined that age, causes of visual impairment, and the degree of the impairment did not have a significant influence on the quality of life of these children and their parents. Time of onset of visual impairment had an impact on the quality of life and performing daily activities (p=0.027), as well as the presence of multiple disabilities (p=0.017). Unemployed mothers, compared to employed ones, significantly better evaluated visual functioning of their children (p=0.012). Conclusion: The process of early intervention should be preceded by the evaluation of the child’s development and family needs. It should be focused on the family, family concerns and priorities.