CBM, SightSavers International and ORBIS International
Cataracts can be treated at relatively low cost through surgery, but what about the impact on a person's quality of life? The Cataract Impact Study aims to fill the gaps in knowledge about the impact of cataracts on a person’s overall quality of life by assessing wealth, income and other contributory factors.
Study assesses impact of cataracts on quality of life in short and longer term
Sight is a basic human right, yet there are an estimated 18 million people blind from cataract worldwide. Now a CBM, SightSavers International and ORBIS International-funded study aims to fill the gaps in knowledge about the impact of cataracts on a person’s overall quality of life using wealth, income and other contributory factors to assess key benefits of cataract surgery, with empirical evidence of improved health-related quality of life and increased involvement in different daily activities for a population of older adults in low-income countries.
Cataracts can be treated at relatively low cost through surgery, and there is an established link between cataracts and blindness if untreated, particularly in low-income countries where access to surgery is often limited. But does the onset of cataracts have a quantifiable impact on quality of life? This was the question posed by a recent study. The Cataract Impact study conducted by the International Centre for Eye Health aims to assess the impact of cataract surgery on poverty, health-related quality of life and activities, using data collected in focal countries Kenya, Bangladesh and the Philippines over a period of three years from 2005-2008.
The study used surveys and population-based case-finding in the three countries on a number of cases as well as ‘controls’, people living in the same communities as the cases and of the same age and gender, but without visual impairment. Each target group was then compared against the ‘controls’. At baseline, cases visually impaired from cataract had worse vision-related, generic health-related and quality of life than controls with normal vision, were poorer than controls in terms of assets, self-rated wealth and monthly expenditure, and were less likely to carry out productive activities, spent more time in inactivity and were more likely to have assistance with activities than controls.
However, at one year follow-up after cataract surgery, the health-related and vision-related quality of life of cases had improved since baseline and became similar to the level experienced by controls. Cases were also more likely to undertake and spent more time on productive activities than at baseline, spent less time in inactivity and were less likely to report assistance with activities. the expenditure (per person) of households with cases had also improved over baseline in Bangladesh and the Philippines. The study therefore shows that cataract is associated with reduced quality of life and family poverty, which can be reversed by cataract surgery.
The study was funded by CBM, SightSavers International and ORBIS International.The results and more background information can be obtained on the ICEH website via the link opposite.
ICEH website for Cataract Impact Study
VISION 2020 Key Facts
- VISION 2020 is the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness, a joint programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) with an international membership of NGOs, professional associations, eye care institutions and corporations.
- Approximately 314 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindnesx. Of these, 45 million people are blind and 269 million have low vision. Worldwide, and especially in developing countries, there is a direct connection between disability such as visual impairment, poverty and social exclusion. 145 million people's low vision is due to uncorrected refractive errors (near-sightedness, far-sightedness or astigmatism).
- In most cases, normal vision could be restored with eyeglasses. Women face a significantly greater risk of vision loss than men - two-thirds of blind people worldwide are women and girls. 90per cent of blind people live in low-income countries. 80 per cent of blindness is avoidable - i.e. readily treatable and/or preventable. Restorations of sight, and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in health care.
- Infectious causes of blindness are decreasing as a result of public health interventions and socio-economic development. Blinding trachoma now affects fewer than 80 million people, compared to 360 million in 1985. However, ageing populations and lifestyle changes mean that chronic blinding conditions such as diabetic retinopathy are projected to rise exponentially. Without effective, major intervention, the number of blind people worldwide has been projected to increase to 76 million by 2020.
