750 Abstracts and their combination are medicines of choice for treatment of glaucoma in Russia. CONCLUSIONS: More attention is being payed to prostaglandins and CAIs. The information of ophthal- mologist and their patients about the cost of therapy is a very important component for pharmacoeconomical decisions together with medical effectiveness of treatment. But it is rather low in Russia in whole. EYE/EAR/SKIN DISEASES/DISORDERS EYE/EAR/SKIN DISEASES/DISORDERS—Quality of Life/Utility/Preference Studies PES14 RESPONSIVENESS OF SELF-REPORTED VISUAL FUNCTIONING IN AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION (AMD) PATIENTS TO GENERAL HEALTH AND CHANGES IN VISUAL ACUITY IN A PHASE I/II RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF LUCENTIS TM (RANIBIZUMAB; RHUFAB V2) Globe D 1 ,Tonnu IQ 1 , Chang TS 1 , Fine J 2 1 University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; 2 Genentech, Inc, South San Francisco, CA, USA OBJECTIVES: Evaluate association of National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire-25 (VFQ-25) score changes with systemic comorbidities and visual acuity (VA) changes in neovascular AMD patients in a phase I/II randomized controlled trial of Lucentis TM (ranibizumab; rhuFab V2). METHODS: At baseline and three months, 57 patients completed the VFQ-25 (self-reported visual function) and VA was measured. The pres- ence of seven comorbidities was recorded at baseline. VA score (number of lines read) was converted to a weighted log of the minimum angle of resolution (0.25 worse eye logMAR + 0.75 better eye logMAR). To estimate the relative association of changes in VA and comorbidities with changes in VFQ-25 scores, separate regression models of three-month changes in each sub- scale score on the logMAR scores were developed for each comorbidity. RESULTS: Mean number of comorbidities was 3, including: 25 (44%) hypertension, 24 (42%) arthritis, 14 (25%) hearing loss, 12 (21%) diabetes, 12 (21%) psychiatric disease, 12 (21%) back pain, 11 (19%) cancer. Due to small sample size, only VA estimates in the regression were significant after con- trolling, individually, for the comorbidities. For all models, a one-line (0.1 logMAR) worsening in VA was significantly asso- ciated with decreased subscale scores, particularly those related to central vision (Near Activities, Distance Activities). VA alone explained 11% of the variation in the VFQ-25 change between baseline and 3 months in the Near Activities subscale. Inclusion of an individual comorbidity improved the explanatory power of the models slightly (r 2 ): to 12% for hypertension, hearing loss, diabetes, psychiatric disease, cancer, and back pain, 13% for arthritis subjects, and 14% when summing all comorbidites a patient had. CONCLUSIONS: Some selected VFQ-25 subscale scores were decreased with the presence of visual impairment and comorbidities. Systemic diseases should be included in VFQ- 25 assessments to control for differences between patients and samples. PES15 IMPACT OF ATOPIC DERMATITIS ON PARENT&PSI;S QUALITY OF LIFE AND USE OF DIRECT RESOURCES IN PATIENTS BETWEEN 2 AND 12 YEARS OLD. DAES STUDY Espinosa C 1 , García A 2 , García-Patos V 3 , Hachero JG 4 , Polanco I 5 , Rodrigo C 6 , Zambrano A 7 , Figueras M 1 , Díaz JM 1 1 Novartis Farmacéutica S.A, Barcelona, Spain; 2 Hospital de la Princesa, Madrid, Spain; 3 Hospital Vall D’Hebrón, Barcelona, Spain; 4 Hospital Virgen de la Macarena, Sevilla, Spain; 5 Hospital La Paz, Madrid, Spain; 6 Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Barcelona, Spain; 7 Hospital Niño Jesús, Madrid, Spain OBJECTIVES: Assess the impact of atopic dermatitis (AD) on parent’s quality of life (QoL) and use of health direct resources in patients between 2 and 12 years old. METHODS: An obser- vational burden-disease study of nine months of follow-up in which AD patients 2 to 12 years old were included according to Hanifin&Rajka diagnostic criteria. Four visits were conducted per protocol (baseline, 3, 6, 9 months). Disease severity was assessed by Investigator’s Global Assessment(IGA). Parents’ QoL was assessed by Parents Index of Quality of Life Atopic Der- matitis (PiQoL-AD) and by Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) of the EQ-5D questionnaire. Use of direct resources in the last three months were assessed retrospectively by medical files data or direct interviews to patients’ parents. RESULTS: Results are referred to baseline visit. A total of 240 children with AD were included in the analysis, with mean age (SD) 5.3 (2.7), 52% were boys. The most frequent careers were mothers (87.8%), 36.24 (4.9) years older (mean(SD)). 19.18% of patients had clear or almost clear AD (IGA < 2), 31.25% had mild disease (IGA = 2), 37.91% had moderate disease (IGA = 3) and 11.68% had severe or very severe disease (IGA = 4 or IGA = 5). Disease severity had a significant impact on parent’s QoL: mean scores of PIQoL-AD questionnaire increased 4.9 points and VAS score decrease 16.28 points (p < 0.5), indicating a worsening health state. In the last 3 months, 79.69% of patients required medical assistance, mainly from paediatricians or dermatologists; 81.84% pharma- cological treatment and 24.11% laboratory tests, 17.61% unscheduled visits and 12.73% went to the Emergency Depart- ment. Use of direct resources increased with severity (p < 0.5). CONCLUSIONS: Parents’ QoL tends to reduce progressively from mild AD states while resource utilization increases pro- gressively. Proper management of AD may help maintain patients in less severe disease states, reducing the negative impact on quality of life and on resource utilization. PES16 SCALING PROPERTIES OF THE DERMATOLOGY LIFE QUALITY INDEX (DLQI) McK enna SP , Meads DM, Doward LC Galen Research, Manchester, UK OBJECTIVES: The Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) is a widely-used HRQL measure. The instrument is intended for use by patients with any skin disease. The aim of this study was to assess the scaling properties of the DLQI and whether it is free from differential item functioning (DIF). METHODS: DLQI data collected in atopic dermatitis (AD) and psoriasis studies in the UK were subjected to Rasch (one-parameter logistic item response theory) analysis. Fit to the Rasch model was examined via Chi 2 statistics and assessments of DIF related to gender, age and type of skin disease were made. RESULTS: Sample: Psoria- sis study: n = 148 (49.7% male; mean age 45.1 +/- 14.9; mean illness duration 20.9 +/- 13.5; mean DLQI score 8.7 +/- 6.7); AD study: n = 286 (29.4% male; mean age 44.9 +/- 16.4; mean illness duration 29.0 +/- 16.7; mean DLQI score 7.0 (+/-5.1). The DLQI showed significant misfit to the Rasch model in pso- riasis and AD—indicating that the instrument is not unidimen- sional. Several DLQI items exhibited DIF by age and gender. Four of the ten items in the measure exhibited DIF by disease. CONCLUSIONS: The DLQI was found to misfit the Rasch model in both patient samples, indicating that it is unsafe to use the total score on the measure. Its validity is further compro- mised by DIF associated with age and gender which indicates that items work differently with different subgroups of patients. For example, the item “How much has your skin influenced the