Impact of Cataract Surgery on Quality of Life in Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the outcome of cataract surgery subjectively by assessing functional vision in terms of quality of life(QOL),. activities of daily living (ADL), and patient's satisfaction Methodology: This was an observational and multicentered study in which patients with age-related cataract who had surgery in Plateau State from 1 Result: Two hundred patients were recruited. One hundred and ninety-nine (59.5%) of them were male and 81(40.5%) were female. About 34.5% of the study population were farmers, 97 (48.5%) of them were blind and 183 (83.6%) eyes were blind preoperatively. The mean preoperative visual function (VF) and quality of life (QOL) scores of the ninety-seven blind patients were 15.2 (SD 3.9) and 22.4 (SD 4.5) respectively. There was a positive correlation between visual acuity (VA) and subjective visual function (r = 0.92), and between VA and QOL (r = 0.83). Functional vision improved after cataract surgery; it was more remarkable among blind patients with mean VF and QOL scores of 58.3 and 60.5 respectively. One hundred and twenty-one (80.1%) patients expressed satisfaction with the outcome of surgery. Conclusion: Visual impairment from cataract has a wide implication on health and the quality of life of patients. Cataract surgery in our environment leads to an increase in the quality of life for many cataract-blind patients.