International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences | April-June 2014 | Vol 2 | Issue 2 Page 721 International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Danayak P et al. Int J Res Med Sci. 2014 May;2(2):721-727 www.msjonline.org pISSN 2320-6071 | eISSN 2320-6012 Research Article Study of psycho-social impairment in patients presenting with age related macular degeneration in a tertiary eye care hospital Parul Danayak 1 *, Chinmay Jani 2 , Anita Verma 3 , Parth Shah 2 INTRODUCTION The macular region is a specialized area of the central retina with a diameter of 5.5 mm. It can be divided into several regions: fovea, foveola, parafoveal area, perifoveal region. Fovea is the central rod free area, containing millions of cone cells that provide a sharp, detailed central vision. The retina transmits signals to the brain and an image is thus formed. Thus if macula is damaged, image is formed but fine points are lost. Age Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD) is a common eye condition in old age people (50 years and older). It is a medical condition which would result in the loss of vision in the center of the visual field. Macular degeneration gradually destroys the macula. Vision loss makes face recognition, car driving, reading or performing minute works difficult, leading to heavy economical & financial loss as the person might lose his source of earning. ARMD affects approximately 10% of persons aged 65-75 years & 30% of those aged 75 & older 1 ARMD is a progressive and irreversible disease. It is divided into two main forms: dry ARMD and wet ARMD. Dry ARMD is characterized by aggregation of hyaline material between Bruch’s membrane and retinal pigment ABSTRACT Background: Age Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD) is an eye condition affecting old age people causing severe vision loss. This study was carried out to assess the psycho-social impairment in the ARMD patients and compare it with the normal eye patients. Methods: A Two study groups were made: 1. ARMD patients. 2. Control group patients. Patients of both the groups were made to fill “The validated Gujarati version of: General Health Quality Questionnaire-28 (GHQ 28)”. Self- scoring was done according to 0-1-2-3 lower to higher disability respectively. Results: Prevalence GHQ Mean score of ARMD patients was 34.27 and that of normal eye patients was 24.66. 80.85% of ARMD patients and 26.73% of normal eye patients were psychosocially impaired. Conclusion: ARMD patients are psychosocially more impaired as compared to control group patients (p value <0.001, highly significant). Keywords: ARMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration), Psycho-social impairment, GHQ-28 (General Health Questionnaire) 1 Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, Shri C.H. Nagri Eye Hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India 2 3 rd M.B.B.S., Smt N.H.L. Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India 3 Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Smt N.H.L. Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India Received: 27 March 2014 Accepted: 7 April 2014 *Correspondence: Dr. Parul Danayak, E-mail: paruldanayak@yahoo.co.in © 2014 Danayak P et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: 10.5455/2320-6012.ijrms20140566