The impact of successful cataract surgery on quality of life, household income and social status in South India

To explore the hypothesis that sight restoring cataract surgery provided to impoverished rural communities will improve not only visual acuity and vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) but also poverty and social status. Participants were recruited at outreach camps in Tamil Nadu, South India, and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-08, Vol.7 (8), p.e44268-e44268
Main Authors: Finger, Robert P, Kupitz, David G, Fenwick, Eva, Balasubramaniam, Bharath, Ramani, Ramanathan V, Holz, Frank G, Gilbert, Clare E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acuity
Biology
Blindness
Care and treatment
Cataract extraction
Cataract Extraction - economics
Cataract Extraction - statistics & numerical data
Cataracts
Demographic aspects
Demography
Educational Status
Eye surgery
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Health aspects
Hospitals
Households
Humans
Implantation
Income
Income - statistics & numerical data
India - epidemiology
Linear Models
Low income groups
Male
Marginality
Marital Status - statistics & numerical data
Medicine
Middle Aged
Patient outcomes
Personal income
Poverty
Poverty - statistics & numerical data
Public health
Quality of Life
Questionnaires
Rural areas
Rural communities
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social aspects
Social Class
Social classes
Social interactions
Social status
Studies
Surgery
Surgical outcomes
Vision
Visual acuity
Visual impairment
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Summary:To explore the hypothesis that sight restoring cataract surgery provided to impoverished rural communities will improve not only visual acuity and vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) but also poverty and social status. Participants were recruited at outreach camps in Tamil Nadu, South India, and underwent free routine manual small incision cataract surgery (SICS) with intra-ocular lens (IOL) implantation, and were followed up one year later. Poverty was measured as monthly household income, being engaged in income generating activities and number of working household members. Social status was measured as rates of re-marriage amongst widowed participants. VRQoL was measured using the IND-VFQ-33. Associations were explored using logistic regression (SPSS 19). Of the 294 participants, mean age ± standard deviation (SD) 60 ± 8 years, 54% men, only 11% remained vision impaired at follow up (67% at baseline; p
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0044268