Since the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that “health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” the impact of a disease or treatment on the patient’s life has become increasingly measured using assessments of well-being or quality of life (QoL) in addition to more traditional clinical measures. Because of the breadth of HR-QoL and its patient-centered nature, it has been measured using questionnaires (called instruments in the research literature), which can be efficient tools for gathering large amounts of data quickly.

Included in this special issue is a report that highlights the major improvements in VR-QoL that cataract surgery can make to patients with both cataract and age-related macular degeneration. These examples highlight the value of QoL instruments in demonstrating the range of benefits possible from cataract surgery.

he content of this feature issue is not confined to instruments that purport to measure global QoL. A number of instruments are described in this issue that measure symptoms including ocular pain, visual and physical symptoms related to VDU use, and visual symptoms in college students. These studies reflect the significance of symptoms and their management within the optometric setting. This area of optometric research has previously lacked an evidence base due to the difficulties in quantifying symptoms. The papers in this Feature Issue represent an exciting contribution that should facilitate more research in this core optometry area.

We are delighted to bring you this Feature Issue on Vision-Related Quality of Life, which includes a range of important research papers that highlight the usefulness of these outcome measures in ophthalmic research. Hopefully, this issue emphasizes the value of IRT including Rasch analysis and will act as a springboard for their use within the vision research community.