Rare Eye Diseases are the leading cause of severe visual impairment/ blindness in children in Europe. This sensory disability with its accompanying psychological distress hugely impacts their lives and their families. Understanding this impact, at a patient centred level, is key in care, in shared decision making, in developing therapies, and in improving social integration and participation about the standard rules of the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) (prevention, non-discrimination, equal opportunities, accessibility, etc.). However, current tools to evaluate vision related (VR) quality of life (QoL) VR-QoL disregard age and cultural differences. We lack knowledge on how the disease matters at child’s level. Instruments capable of yielding high-quality data, psychometrically robust and comply with regulatory requirements remain to be developed.

This study aims to assess the real-life impact of severe visual impairment/ blindness (SVI/B) in European children and teenagers affected by  Rare Eye Diseases and how can we best capture this impact quantitatively and qualitatively.

To fill this gap, SeeMyLife multidisciplinary teams from 6 European countries (FR, DE, IT, BE, LT, and PL) will use multilevel concurrent mixed method research combining quantitative studies and qualitative studies. The quantitative approach is based on (i) cross culturally translated validated Vision Related Quality of Life (VR-QoL) questionnaires for children and teenagers (Functional Vision Questionnaire for Children and Young People (FVQ-CYP) and Vision-related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Children and Young People (VQoL-CYP) and (ii) on caregiver’s questionnaires addressing participation and environment (Participation and Environment Measure - Children and Youth - PEM-CY). To fully capture the picture of the child/teenager personal life, the investigations will be reinforced by in depth, qualitative, socio-anthropologic study with semi directive field interviews and fieldwork (to observe closely the living conditions of the children) to address how their impairment affects their wellbeing, social integration, and how they feel about medical and social interventions. Data analysis will use an integrated mixed method strategy to validate the quantitative tools and deliver a holistic QoL transnational tool.