Cataract morphology, visual function and quality of life: A prospective observational study of surgical section

Abstract

We sought to identify the relative importance placed on quality of life indicators amongst other patient‐specific determinants of cataract surgery in a 12‐month prospective study carried out at Princess Alexandra Eye hospital in Edinburgh attending 6 consultant teams. Data collection was carried out covering three major domains:visual function: (1) visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, retinal straylight measurement, (2) cataract morphology: Oxford cataract classification scale (3)quality of life:VF14, Massof and Sparrow Questionnaire. Patient factors predicting surgical selection reflective of current practice were best‐corrected visual acuity, brunescence grades and straylight measures, rather than quality of life scores across all grades of presenting severity for all consultant teams. Reducing thresholds for surgery and a "ceiling effect" may explain the poor predictive power of vision‐specific quality of life scales in current cataract surgical selection.