title: The influence of age on characteristics of cataract patients.
abstract: The influence of age on 12 pre-, 1 intra-, and 2 postoperative patients' characteristics was investigated in 1261 consecutively performed extracapsular cataract extractions. The following characteristics were shown to be significantly associated with increasing age; cardiovascular disease (p < 0.0005), female gender (p < 0.0005), nuclear sclerosis (p < 0.0005), maculopathy (p < 0.0005), corneal guttate (p = 0.008) and reducing visual acuity in the fellow eye (p < 0.0005). Further, inadequate mydriasis at start of surgery was significantly associated with increasing age even after adjusting for glaucoma and pseudoexfoliation (p = 0.0007). After adjusting for pseudoexfoliation, a statistically significant relationship still existed between age and glaucoma (p = 0.0235). Even after controlling for relevant variables, i.e. maculopathy, a highly significant association was found between reducing visual acuity 4 months postoperatively and increasing age (p < 0.00005). Diabetes mellitus, the degree of cataract maturity, preoperative visual acuity of the operating eye, vitreous loss and postoperative inflammatory response were not significantly associated with increasing age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Drolsum
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Haaskjold
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002387:Cataract Extraction; D015897:Comorbidity; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007910:Lenses, Intraocular; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity