1. The impact of successful cataract surgery on quality of life, household income and social status in South India
- Author
-
Eva K Fenwick, Robert P. Finger, Ramanathan V. Ramani, David G. Kupitz, Clare Gilbert, Frank G. Holz, and Bharath Balasubramaniam
- Subjects
Gerontology ,Male ,Visual acuity ,Cataracts and Other Lens Disorders ,genetic structures ,Epidemiology ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Logistic regression ,Global Health ,Social and Behavioral Sciences ,Quality of life ,Sociology ,Multidisciplinary ,Social Discrimination ,Middle Aged ,Socioeconomic Aspects of Health ,Income ,Educational Status ,Medicine ,Female ,Public Health ,medicine.symptom ,Social status ,Research Article ,Clinical Research Design ,Science ,India ,Cataract Extraction ,Social Prejudice ,medicine ,Humans ,Biology ,Poverty ,Primary Care ,Demography ,Blindness ,Population Biology ,Marital Status ,business.industry ,Cataract surgery ,medicine.disease ,eye diseases ,Social Epidemiology ,Ophthalmology ,Social Class ,Linear Models ,Quality of Life ,Household income ,business ,Follow-Up Studies - Abstract
BackgroundTo 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.MethodsParticipants 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).ResultsOf the 294 participants, mean age ± standard deviation (SD) 60 ± 8 years, 54% men, only 11% remained vision impaired at follow up (67% at baseline; pConclusionThese findings indicate the broad positive impact of sight restoring cataract surgery on the recipients' as well as their families' lives. Providing free high quality cataract surgery to marginalized rural communities will not only alleviate avoidable blindness but also - to some extent - poverty in the long run.
- Published
- 2012