title: Influence of sex, visual acuity, and systemic disease on delayed presentation for cataract surgery in Austria.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the influence of sex, age, preoperative visual acuity, and systemic disease on the delay in presentation for first-eye cataract surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  University Eye Clinic, Vienna, Austria.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study comprised 200 consecutive patients with age-related cataract who were referred to the Ophthalmology Department of the University of Vienna and who had cataract surgery in the first eye. Patients with additional intraocular procedures or with other ocular comorbidity were excluded. Age, sex, preoperative best corrected Snellen visual acuity in both eyes, ocular and systemic comorbidity, and the duration of preoperative visual deterioration were recorded. The patients were divided into groups depending on systemic comorbidity. The severity of disease was categorized as no therapy necessary or nonexistent, nonsevere, or severe.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of women and men was 74.9 years and 70.7 years, respectively, and the mean preoperative visual acuity, 0.31 and 0.24. The duration of preoperative visual deterioration was 8.6 months and 12.2 months, respectively. All differences were statistically significant (P <.05). The visual acuity in the better eye was not significantly different between men and women. Neither the presence nor the type of systemic disease influenced preoperative visual acuity or the duration of preoperative visual deterioration.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the visual acuity in the better eye was not different between men and women, men had cataract surgery after a longer duration of visual deterioration and with a worse visual acuity. More public information about cataract surgery is required to keep visual deterioration secondary to cataract to a minimum.
authors.affiliation: University Eye Clinic, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Richter-Mueksch
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zehetmayer
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Radner
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaider
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Velikay-Parel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D002386:Cataract / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D014792:Visual Acuity