title: Association between visual impairment and patient-reported visual disability at different stages of cataract surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the association between visual impairment (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, stereopsis) and patient-reported visual disability at different stages of cataract surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cohort of 104 patients aged 60 years and over with bilateral cataract was assessed preoperatively, after first-eye surgery (monocular pseudophakia) and after second-eye surgery (binocular pseudophakia). Partial correlation coefficients (PCC) and linear regression models were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In patients with bilateral cataracts, visual disability was associated with visual acuity (PCC = -0.30) and, to a lesser extent, with contrast sensitivity (PCC = 0.16) and stereopsis (PCC = -0.09). In monocular and binocular pseudophakia, visual disability was more strongly associated with stereopsis (PCC = -0.26 monocular and -0.51 binocular) and contrast sensitivity (PCC = 0.18 monocular and 0.34 binocular) than with visual acuity (PCC = -0.18 monocular and -0.18 binocular). Visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis accounted for between 17% and 42% of variance in visual disability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The association of visual impairment with patient-reported visual disability differed at each stage of cataract surgery. Measuring other forms of visual impairment independently from visual acuity, such as contrast sensitivity or stereopsis, could be important in evaluating both needs and outcomes in cataract surgery. More comprehensive assessment of the impact of cataract on patients should include measurement of both visual impairment and visual disability.
authors.affiliation: Evaluation and Clinical Epidemiology Department, Municipal Institute of Health Care (IMAS) and Health Services Research Unit, Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM-IMAS), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: E Ruthy
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Acosta-Rojas
authors.forename: Mercè
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Comas
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Castells
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002386:Cataract / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002387:Cataract Extraction; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019654:Lens Implantation, Intraocular; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019591:Pseudophakia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*