The Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) is a well-known dry eye questionnaire. However, some clinicians might find it too long and the calculation of the final dry eye score time consuming. Researchers recently developed a shorter version of the OSDI with a simplified scoring system, the OSDI-6. They found the new questionnaire to be repeatable and easily completed.

The OSDI-6 was devised with the help of 264 participants who completed the OSDI questionnaire. The researchers analyzed the results to detect the questions of each subscale that were the most important to the overall score. The six most pertinent questions involved asking about sensitivity to light, blurred vision, driving at night, watching television, windy conditions and places with low humidity.

The team then compared the OSDI-6 with the OSDI and the five-item Dry Eye Questionnaire (DEQ-5) in 120 patients to evaluate its predictive ability. The mean OSDI score was 20.3±16.6, the mean DEQ-5 score 7.9±4.6 and the mean OSDI-6 score 10.3±8.6. The analysis showed the shortened dry eye questionnaire was still accurate and repeatable, suggesting it’s “a good alternative to the full original OSDI for use in clinical practice as well as research,” the researchers concluded. 

Clinicians can access the OSDI-6 here.