Viual acuity and quality of life outcome in patient with cataract in hunyi County, China Original Reearch Article

PURPOE: To meaure viual acuity and viion-related quality of life in individual in rural China operated on for cataract. METHOD: Five thouand fifty-two peron age 50 year and older, 90.9% (5,052/5,555) of a randomly elected population in hunyi County, were examined in the fall of 1996. Viual functioning and quality of life quetionnaire were adminitered to thoe with preenting viual acuity le than 6/60 in either eye and to thoe who were aphakic or peudophakic. REULT: Of the 87 individual operated on for cataract, 12% (10/87) had preenting viual acuity of 6/18 or more in both eye, and 24.1% (21/87) had le than 6/60. Twenty-five percent (29/116) of the 116 eye operated on for cataract had preenting viual acuity of 6/18 or more, and 44.8% (52/116) had le than 6/60. Aphakic cae without glae and uncorrectable aphakia attributable to urgical complication were common. In a multivariate regreion model, including time period of urgery, hopital type, and urgical procedure, only peudophakia wa aociated with better outcome (P = .05). On a cale from 0 (maximum problem) to 100 (no problem), the mean viual functioning core (±D) for the operated-on population wa 61.9 ± 30.0, and 71.0 ± 31.8 for the quality of life quetionnaire. Thee core were comparable to thoe of the unoperated-on population with moderate bilateral blindne (<6/60 to ≥3/60 in the better eye). Viual functioning and quality of life core were cloely correlated with viual acuity in operated-on (r = 0.64 and r = 0.61, repectively) and unoperated-on population (r = 0.68 and r = 0.59, repectively). CONCLUION: Both clinical and patient-reported cataract urgery outcome are below what hould be achievable. Improvement in outcome mut be given greater emphai if the potential of cataract urgery in retoring ight i to be realized.