Impact of cataract surgery on vision-related life performances: the usefulness of Real-Life Vision Test for cataract surgery outcomes evaluation.
OBJECTIVE
Real-Life Vision Test (RLVT) is a newly developed performance-based measures of functional vision. This present study is designed to determine whether it could be a meaningful assessment for cataract surgery outcomes evaluation.


METHODS
Age-related cataract patients (56) who scheduled for bilateral cataract surgery and 44 age-matched controls were evaluated by four types of measurements: (1) demographic, medical, cognitive and depressive evaluation, and the reaction time testing; (2) clinical measures (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, stereopsis, and color perception); (3) the 25-item National Eye Institute's Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ); (4) the RLVT. Spearman's coefficients and multiple regression analysis were conducted to investigate the relationship among RLVT, clinical measures, and self-report assessment of visual function.


RESULTS
The results of RLVT, clinical measures, and NEI-VFQ total scores were improved significantly after cataract surgery. There were no differences between control subjects and post-surgery patients with respect to NEI-VFQ-25 total scores, self-rating depression scale scores and three tasks of RLVT. Change of RLVT was significantly associated with the change of clinical measures in the cataract group. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that change of distance, intermediate, and near visual acuity, and binocular contrast sensitivity were significant predictors of improvements of RLVT.


CONCLUSIONS
Cataract surgery could improve real-world visual ability effectively for cataract patients. Our study highlights the potential usefulness of RLVT as an adjunct to the current outcomes evaluation system for cataract surgery. The use of RLVT combined with clinical and self-survey methods may be the comprehensive strategy to manifest the impact of cataract surgery on patients' overall vision-related quality of life.
Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Vision Loss and Restoration, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
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Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Vision Loss and Restoration, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
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Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Vision Loss and Restoration, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
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Hou
Research Center of Clinical Epidemiology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.
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Zhang
Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Vision Loss and Restoration, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
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Qiu
Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Vision Loss and Restoration, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
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Wang
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002386:Cataract / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019654:Lens Implantation, Intraocular; D008297:Male; D018918:Phacoemulsification; D019591:Pseudophakia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000379:methods; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*