Original articleA Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study of Quality of Life and Economic Outcomes after Cataract Surgery in Vietnam: The VISIONARY Study
Section snippets
Methods
Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Sydney (13407), and all study participants provided written informed consent using certified translations of approved participant information and consent forms.
The methods have been published.19 VISIONARY was a multicenter prospective longitudinal cohort study conducted in 4 provinces of Vietnam: Hue, Binh Dinh, Vinh Long, and Thai Binh. Health centers in each Province provide eye health services and coordinate regular eye health outreach,
Results
A total of 480 participants consented to the study and completed baseline assessments (Fig 1). A total of 462 of 480 participants (96%) underwent first cataract surgery before their scheduled 6-month interview. The 12-month follow-up was completed in November 2012, and the average follow-up period was 357.2 days (SD, 58.6). At baseline, individuals lost to follow-up were older (mean difference = 4.1 years, P = 0.0005), less likely to be married (P = 0.01), and less likely to have voluntary
Discussion
This study demonstrated that cataract surgery is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in quality of life 12 months after surgery.31 These results underscore the potentially profound social and health benefits associated with improved vision after removal of a cataract and support other findings on the important relationship between vision and quality of life.4, 5 Given the relatively poor vision measured in the study population before surgery and the high uptake of surgery,
Acknowledgments
The VISIONARY study team includes the named authors and the following researchers who contributed to the development and piloting of the study tools and assisted with data collection: Nguyen Ly Kieu Trang, Nguyen Thanh Long, Le Thi Thuy Trang, Nguyen The Hung, Vo Ke Dien, Tran Quoc Dung, Luong Tuan Thien, and Do Thanh Huyen.
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∗Supplemental material is available at www.aaojournal.org.
Financial Disclosure(s): The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.
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VISIONARY is a collaborative academic study coordinated jointly by investigators at The George Institute for Global Health and the Fred Hollows Foundation in Australia and Vietnam. The study is funded by a grant provided by the Fred Hollows Foundation, Australia. The research team had full control of all primary data and were not limited in any way by the funder in the completion of this study or the reporting of results. During the course of this work B.E. was in receipt of an Ian Potter Foundation Fellowship and support from a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Capacity Building Grant (571372), S.J. received an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship, M.H. received an NHMRC Population Health Career Development Award and a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship, and L.K. received an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. These funding bodies had no role in the conduct or reporting of the review.