title: Gender and referral to cataract surgery in Sweden.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate how cataract surgery was initiated and analyse possible gender difference in referral to surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Consecutive patients scheduled for first eye cataract surgery at three Swedish community-run eye departments were interviewed concerning how surgery was initiated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  649 patients were interviewed and 63.2% were female. The number of patients referred to surgery by an earlier contact with a health care provider was 271 (41.8%) and the remaining 378 (58.2%) patients had actively requested advice or help because of visual problems caused by cataract and without a prior regular contact. 44.7% of female patients were referred through a health care provider they visited for reasons other than cataract and the corresponding number for male patients was 36.8%. This gender difference is statistically significant at the 5% level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A health care provider that patients visited for other problems than cataract referred female patients to cataract surgery to a significantly higher degree than male patients.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Ophthalmology, Sahlgren's University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Olofsson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lundström
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Stenevi
mesh_terms: D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden; D014792:Visual Acuity