Several factors associated with self-assessed benefit of cataract surgery

This large prospective study assessed pre- and postoperative factors associated with self-assessed visual function after cataract surgery. The authors found that young age (P < 0.001), low preoperative CDVA (P < 0.001), high postoperative CDVA (P < 0.001), lack of ocular comorbidity (P < 0.001) and postoperative myopia (-2 to 0 D) instead of hyperopia (>0 to +2 D; P < 0.05) were associated with greater improvement in subjective visual function, better postoperative subjective visual function and higher satisfaction with vision.

Subjects were 14,817 patients who underwent cataract surgery from 2000 to 2006 in Swedish ophthalmology departments and completed the Rasch-recoded Catquest-9SF questionnaire before surgery and six months postoperatively.

Women (P < 0.001) and patients who underwent a first-eye surgery (P < 0.001) experienced greater improvement but lower postoperative subjective visual function (P < 0.001) than men and patients who underwent second-eye surgery. This may be because women had lower preoperative subjective visual function than men. The results indicate that women experienced greater improvement in self-reported visual function from before to after surgery than men, but the improvement was not enough to make women more satisfied than men postoperatively. A similar explanation may be used for the first- or second-eye cataract surgery factor. Patients who underwent a second-eye surgery may have had better self-assessed visual function before surgery because many may have had good vision in the eye that underwent an earlier cataract surgery.

A correct sign biometry prediction error of plus instead of minus led to greater improvement in subjective visual function (P < 0.01) but no difference in postoperative subjective visual function. The absolute biometry prediction error had no effect on the change in subjective visual function, the subjective mean visual function or satisfaction with vision.