The Retinopathy Dependent Quality of Life questionnaire (RetDQoL) is an individualised measure of the impact of diabetic retinopathy on quality of life taking account of the relevance and importance of different aspects of life for the quality of life (QoL) of individuals as well as the individual’s view of the impact of diabetic retinopathy on each aspect of life of relevance to them. Closely following the design of the Audit of Diabetes Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL) the content of the RetDQoL was determined following qualitative research with people who had diabetic retinopathy in the UK and Germany (Woodcock et al., 2004).

The RetDQoL was developed alongside the Macular Dependent Quality of Life (MacDQoL) measure of the impact of macular disease on QoL and improvements to one have influenced improvements to the other. Evidence for the psychometric properties of the MacDQoL has been published (Mitchell et al., 2005 and 2008) as has evidence for those of the RetDQoL (Brose et al., 2010).