This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Self-reported postoperative visual function affected by multiple factors
No ocular comorbidity, younger age, female gender, short preoperative waiting time and significant improvement in vision correlated strongly with better self-reported visual function after cataract surgery, according to a study.
Data were culled from the Swedish National Cataract Register on patient-reported visual function. The prospective, non-randomized, multicenter study included 10,364 patients who underwent cataract surgery and completed the Catquest-9SF questionnaire preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively.
The Catquest-9SF questionnaire includes two questions related to difficulties experienced in everyday life and seven questions related to difficulties performing specific tasks.
Statistical analysis was used to gauge the association between ocular comorbidities and changes in patient-perceived visual function, postoperative visual function and satisfaction after cataract surgery.
Results showed that 4,112 patients had ocular comorbidities such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, corneal guttata. Patients with ocular comorbidities showed less improvement in self-reported visual function than patients without comorbidities.
Younger patients showed more improvement in self-reported visual function than older patients, and females showed greater improvement than males. Additionally, patients who waited a longer time before cataract surgery showed less improvement in self-reported visual function than those who waited a shorter time, according to the researchers.
“When the preoperative [corrected distance visual acuity] and postoperative CDVA values were included in the regression model, other predictors, including diabetic retinopathy and corneal guttata, had less effect on improvement in the subjective visual function than when the CDVA was not included in the model,” the authors wrote. “Patients with a lower preoperative CDVA had greater improvement than patients with a higher preoperative CDVA.”
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.