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A multicenter study on the health-related quality of life of cataract patients: Baseline data

  • Clinical Investigation
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Japanese Journal of Ophthalmology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines the impact of cataracts on health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) and health events in the older population.

Methods

The study population consisted of 439 unoperated cataract patients aged 60 years or older who visited any of the facilities affiliated with the Cataract Survey Group of the National Hospital Organization of Japan, which has been conducting a prospective multicenter cohort study on cataract patients. HR-QOL of the patients was assessed using the Japanese version of Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (VFQ-25) and the 8-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-8). The health condition and health events of the patients were also investigated.

Results

The average age of the 439 patients enrolled (126 men and 313 women) was 73.0 ± 7.1 years. There were 323 patients with comorbidities (73.6%), 81 of whom (23.7%) felt it was hard to visit the hospital owing to their visual impairment. In the previous year, 74 patients (16.9%) had experienced a fall and 14 (3.2%) had been in a traffic accident. Of those, 43.2% and 8.3% respectively answered that the falls and the accident could have been triggered by their visual impairment. When the patients were classified according to visual acuity, most of the VFQ-25 subscale scores declined significantly with decreasing visual acuity, whereas the SF-8 scores showed no significant change.

Conclusions

The participants of this study were patients with unoperated cataract, and thus the decline of HR-QOL was modest. The survey of health events, however, revealed that the visual constraint has a certain impact on the daily lives of the older population.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division for Vision Research, National Institute of Sensory Organs, National Tokyo Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan

    Masakazu Yamada, Yoshinobu Mizuno & Yozo Miyake

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Aichi Shukutoku University Clinic, Aichi, Japan

    Yozo Miyake

  3. Division for Vision Research, National Institute of Sensory Organs, National Tokyo Medical Center, 2-5-1 Higashigaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8902, Japan

    Masakazu Yamada

Authors
  1. Masakazu Yamada
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  2. Yoshinobu Mizuno
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  3. Yozo Miyake
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Consortia

Cataract Survey Group of the National Hospital Organization of Japan

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masakazu Yamada.

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Yamada, M., Mizuno, Y., Miyake, Y. et al. A multicenter study on the health-related quality of life of cataract patients: Baseline data. Jpn J Ophthalmol 53, 470–476 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-009-0709-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-009-0709-0

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