Abstract
Purpose :
Cataract is the most common cause of blindness globally and cataract surgical uptake is on the rise. The question of Quality of life (Qol) after cataract surgery in different nations remains pertinent in an ageing world population. This study aims to use reliable data from World Health Organization Study on Global Ageing (WHO SAGE) Wave 1 in six nations to compare Qol in people without a cataract diagnosis (NoCD), people who had cataract surgery (CS) and people who had cataract diagnosis but have not had cataract surgery (NCS).
Methods :
Multistage cluster sampling was used by WHO SAGE to obtain data by face to face interview from 47,443 individuals in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russian Federation and South Africa between 2007 to 2010. A complete case analysis on 26,145 participants aged 50 years and above was done. World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-8) was the dependent variable while cataract diagnosis stratified into (NoCD, CS and NCS) was the main independent variable. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to assess for differences in quality of life score in the pooled sample and individual countries.
Results :
After controlling for socio-demographic, behavioral factors and chronic diseases, the pooled data showed that CS was positively associated with Qol (β, o.2; p-value=0.8) while NCS was significantly negatively associated with Qol (β, -2.4; p-value< 0.01). In the country specific analysis, cataract diagnosis with or without surgery was negatively associated with Qol in China, Ghana, Mexico and Russian Federation. In India (β, 1.8; p-value=0.24) and South Africa (β, 4.8; p-value=0.06), CS was positively associated with Qol. When compared to NCS, CS had a positive effect on quality of life in China, India, Mexico, Russian Federation and South Africa. However, in Ghana, CS (β, 4.7; p-value=0.04) was negatively associated with Qol when compared to no surgery (β, 3.7; p-value=0.08).
Conclusions :
Lower middle and low income nations may have less improvement in Qol after CS, which may be due to the different surgical techniques and prevalent traditional eye surgery (couching) in those areas. Further research on Qol and cataract using different surgical techniques in low income nations is needed to clarify this difference.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.