Abstract
Purpose :
Age-related cataract is one of the main causes of visual impairment and blindness that affects the quality of life of patients. Our aim was to assess the quality of life before and after cataract surgery using the SF-36 questionnaire.
Methods :
Longitudinal study carried out from November 2014 to July 2015, including 402 patients aged ≥50 years with cataract.Patients were evaluated one month after cataract surgery.The SF36 questionnaire, which assesses quality of life according to self-reported health status, includes 36 items for 8 domains (physical functioning, physical performance, corporal pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, emotional performance and mental health).The score per domain ranges from 0 (worse status) to 100 (best status).
Results :
Of 391 patients (66.7%); average age 71.6 years, S.D.10.2), 46.3% had diabetes and 50% had hypertension.Moderate/severe visual impairment was present in 86.3% of patients, and blindness in 13.7%.At baseline, the SF36-score was lower in women than in men for physical functioning (66.3 vs 72.3 respectively,p=0.002), emotional performance (64.3 vs 87.2,respectively, p=0.0001), and mental health (69.8 vs 79.1, respectively,p=0.0001).Subjects with blindness had a lower SF36-score compared with subjects with moderate/severe impairment for physical functioning (70.2 vs 75.9, respectively,p=0.037) and physical performance (45.7 vs 55.1, respectively,p=0.034).The SF36-score was lower in hypertensive compared with non-hypertensive subjects for general health, and physical functioning, and vitality.The SF36-score was also lower in diabetic compared with non-diabetic subjects for general health.In a subsample of 186 patients, using multiple linear regression, after adjustment for age, sex, diabetes, hypertension, blindness and depression, after one month of cataract surgery, an improvement on the quality of life for physical functioning dimension (per each 10 points on the score at baseline, the increment on the score was 6.67 points [IC95% 5.2-8.0]); and for mental health dimension (per each 10 points on the score at baseline, the increment on the score was 4.66 points [IC95% 3.0-6.2]) was observed.
Conclusions :
This study shows a positive impact of cataract surgery on some dimensions of quality of life related to health, particularly physical functioning and mental health, which is a necessary condition for resuming daily life activities
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.