Chinese Web-based Ocular Surface Disease Index (C-OSDI) Questionnaire in Dry Eye Patients: Reliability Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Validated paper-based questionnaires such as the Ocular surface disease index (OSDI) provides a reliable assessment for patients’ ocular surface health. It is one of the most widely used survey instruments worldwide, following its first introduction in 1997. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess the reliability of the web-based version of OSDI in Chinese (C-OSDI) on clinically diagnosed dry eye (DE) patients METHODS A total of 265 Chinese patients (51% male, 129/254; mean age 27.90±9.06 years) with DE completed the paper-based and web-based questionnaires in a randomised crossover design. Ophthalmology examination and DE assessment were performed before the patients were invited to join the study. Patients were randomly assigned to group A (paper-based first and web-based second) or group B (web-based first and paper-based second). All patients included in the final data analysis had completed both versions of the C-OSDI questionnaire. Descriptive sociodemographic characteristics, test-retest reliability, and agreement rates for single items, subscale, and total score were analysed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), Spearman rank correlation, and Wilcoxon test were used. RESULTS Reliability indexes were acceptable, with Pearson correlations greater than .8 and ICCs ranging from .827 to .982; total C-OSDI scores was not statistically different between the two versions. Patients’ survey revealed 72% (182/254) of the participants in this study preferred the web-based over the paper-based version. CONCLUSIONS The web-based version of the C-OSDI questionnaire is reliable for patients with DED and demonstrated significant correlations with the paper-based version in all subscales and the total score. The web-based version of the C-OSDI questionnaire can be used to monitor individuals with DED as a majority of participants preferred the web-based version.