Posters

The association between depressive symptoms and cataract and cataract surgery

Poster Details

First Author: C. Quigley IRELAND

Co Author(s):    L. Zgaga                    

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To assess whether mood disorder is associated with the visual impairment due to cataract, and whether this is positively modified by cataract surgery.

Setting:

Participants were individuals over the age of 50 recruited to The Irish Longitudinal Study of Aging (TILDA), a nationally representative longitudinal study of aging in Ireland. The data collection took place in 2009-2010.

Methods:

In total 8,163 adults were included in the study (4,423 female; mean age 63.5 ± 9.2 years). Assessment included a personal interview during which participants were asked about cataract diagnosis and history of cataract surgery. Depressive symptoms were assessed via the Center for Epidemiologic Studies of Depression (CESD) scale. The association between self-reported cataract and cataract surgery with symptoms of depression was tested via Wilcoxon ranked sum test.

Results:

Cataract was reported as present in n=371 adults (4.54%). Presence of cataract was associated with depressive symptoms (p value =0.0003), with n=45 (12.13%) of adults with cataracts scoring at risk for depression versus n=729 (9.36%) of those without cataracts scoring at risk for clinical depression. In those who have cataract, cataract surgery in one or both eyes was not associated with altered depressive symptoms.

Conclusions:

Presence of cataract in this nationally representative cohort of older adults was associated with greater depressive symptoms, which was not found to be associated with history of cataract surgery. Further assessment of mood of patients before and after cataract surgery is required to further examine whether cataract surgery may be associated with change of mental status. Prospective studies are required.

Financial Disclosure:

NONE