Effectiveness of strabismus surgery on the health-related quality of life assessment of children with intermittent exotropia and their parents: a randomized clinical trial.

Purpose: To evaluate the ability of strabismus surgery to improve the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) assessment scores of children with intermittent exotropia and their parents.

Methods: For this prospective, randomized, parallel group study, 130 children (8-17 year of age) with intermittent exotropia were recruited and randomized to undergo either corrective strabismus surgery or active monitoring without surgery. Each child was accompanied by a parent. HRQOL was assessed with 3 intermittent exotropia questionnaires (IXTQ)--the child self-report, parental proxy report, and parental self-report--administered at enrollment and 3 months after intervention. The primary outcome was change in IXTQ score after 3 months for both groups.

Results: At enrollment the scores of the surgery group (n = 63) and monitoring group (n = 57) did not differ significantly (P > 0.05). The sex of the reporting parent had no significant influence on the proxy or parental scores at enrollment or at 3 months (P > 0.05, multivariate analysis). Strabismus surgery significantly improved all parts of the IXTQ scores (P < 0.0001, repeated measures analysis of variance). No significant changes were found for the child scores at 3 months in the monitoring group (P = 0.33). However, the parental and proxy scores were significantly decreased (P < 0.0001).

Conclusions: Corrective strabismus surgery significantly improved the HRQOL scores of the children with intermittent exotropia and their parents.