Color of intra-ocular lens and cataract type are prognostic determinants of health indices after visual and photoreceptive restoration by surgery.

BACKGROUND: This study compared post-operative quality of life and sleep according to the type of cataract opacity and color of the implanted intra-ocular lens (IOL).

METHODS: This is a cohort study and participants were 206 patients (average age 74.1 years) undergoing cataract surgery with the implantation of a clear ultra-violet (UV)-blocking IOL (C) or a yellow blue-light-blocking IOL (Y). Participants were evaluated using the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) before surgery and 2 and 7 months after surgery. Changes in sub-scale scores of VFQ-25 and PSQI were compared.

RESULTS: Sub-scale analyses for improvement after surgery revealed significant differences in ocular pain scores on the VFQ-25 (Y>C; the higher the score, the better the outcome). Furthermore, there were significant differences between the two IOLs in terms of the sleep latency score (C>Y) and sleep disturbances score (C>Y). A posterior sub-capsular cataract was significantly correlated with improvements in ocular pain and sleep latency scores. These effects were successfully represented by the change in scores rather than absolute post-operative scores because individual standard of response may often change after intervention, recognized as a response shift phenomenon in patient-reported outcome study. Regarding seasonal differences, patients who had surgery in summer exhibited relatively better sleep quality than those who had surgery in winter.

CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of sub-scales of health indices demonstrated characteristic prognoses for each IOL and cataract type. Cataract surgery may potentially contribute to systemic health in older adults.