Purpose: To develop and psychometrically evaluate a visual functioning questionnaire (VFQ) in an ultra-low vision (ULV) population.

Methods: Questionnaire items, based on visual activities self-reported by a ULV population, were categorized by functional visual domain (e.g., mobility) and visual aspect (e.g., contrast) to ensure a representative distribution. In Round 1, an initial set of 149 items was generated and administered to 90 participants with ULV (visual acuity [VA] ≤ 20/500; mean [SD] age 61 [15] years), including six patients with a retinal implant. Psychometric properties were evaluated through Rasch analysis and a revised set (150 items) was administered to 80 participants in Round 2.

Results: In Round 1, the person measure distribution (range, 8.6 logits) was centered at -1.50 logits relative to the item measures. In Round 2, the person measure distribution (range, 9.5 logits) was centered at -0.86 relative to the item mean. The reliability index in both rounds was 0.97 for Items and 0.99 for Persons. Infit analysis showed four underfit items in Round 1, five underfit items in Round 2 with a z-score greater than 4 cutoff. Principal component analysis on the residuals found 69.9% explained variance; the largest component in the unexplained variance was less than 3%.

Conclusions: The ULV-VFQ, developed with content generated from a ULV population, showed excellent psychometric properties as well as superior measurement validity in a ULV population.

Translational relevance: The ULV-VFQ, part of the Prosthetic Low Vision Rehabilitation (PLoVR) development program, is a new VFQ developed for assessment of functional vision in ULV populations.