Posters

Exploring correlations between change in visual acuity following routine cataract surgery and improvement in quality of life assessed with the Glasgow benefit inventory

Poster Details

First Author: M. Katta UNITED KINGDOM

Co Author(s):    S. Heemraz   C. Ning Lee   C. Hammond   O. Mahroo           

Abstract Details

Purpose:

When evaluating outcome of cataract surgery, visual acuity and refractive error remain the most widely used metrics with less emphasis on quantifying improvements in overall quality of life, yet the latter may be more important to patients, and may also be more useful when comparing the utility or cost effectiveness of different interventions across medical and surgical specialties. We recently used a generic patient-reported outcome measure, the Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) to quantify patient-perceived changes in quality of life following cataract surgery. In this study, we explored associations with change in visual acuity.

Setting:

Consecutive patients being seen in a weekly nurse-led post-operative clinic in a large eye department in London. Patients were seen 2-4 weeks following routine cataract surgery by multiple surgeons.

Methods:

The Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) is a validated post-interventional questionnaire developed originally developed to evaluate changes in quality of life after otorhinolaryngological procedures. It consists of 18 questions relating to changes in quality of life, and yields a score that can theoretically range from +100 (maximum benefit) to -100 (maximum detriment) with a score of zero indicating no change. GBI scores were prospectively obtained for 109 consecutive patients. In this study, electronic patient records were retrospectively reviewed to extract pre-operative and post-operative visual acuity data, to explore whether visual acuity change correlated with GBI score.

Results:

Post-operative visual acuity was available for 97 operations. Of these, pre-operative visual acuity was not available for 32 operations, so 65 were included for analysis. In these patients, mean (SD) decimalised pre-operative and post-operative visual acuities were 0.48 (0.32) and 0.82 (0.33) respectively, with a mean increase in visual acuity of 0.34 (95% confidence interval 0.25 to 0.43, p <0.0001). The mean total GBI score was +22.7 (SD 20.9; 95% CI +17.6 to +27.8). The coefficient of correlation between change in visual acuity and GBI score was 0.30 (p = 0.015).

Conclusions:

There was a statistically significant positive correlation between quality of life improvement following cataract surgery, as quantified by the GBI, and improvement in visual acuity. However, the strength of the correlation was moderate to weak. As visual acuity measurement does not capture the full effect on patient quality of life, we would suggest the use of additional patient-reported outcome measures routinely after surgery. The GBI may be a suitable instrument for such purposes as it can be administered within minutes and allows comparison with other procedures.

Financial Disclosure:

NONE