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Research Paper|Volume 9, Issue 3|pp 1030—1040

The impact of pseudophakia on vision-related quality of life in the general population – The Gutenberg Health Study

Alexander K. Schuster1, Norbert Pfeiffer1, Andreas Schulz2, Stefan Nickels1, René Höhn1,3, Philipp S. Wild2,4,5, Maria Blettner6, Thomas Münzel7, Manfred E. Beutel8, Karl J. Lackner9, Urs Vossmerbaeumer1
  • 1Department of Ophthalmology, Mainz University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany
  • 2Preventive Cardiology and Preventive Medicine, Center for Cardiology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • 3Department of Ophthalmology, Inselspital, University Hospital of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • 4Center for Thrombosis and Hemostasis, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • 5DZHK (German Center for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Rhine-Main, Mainz, Germany
  • 6Department of Biomedical Statistics, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • 7Center for Cardiology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • 8Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • 9Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
Received: November 20, 2016Accepted: March 17, 2017Published: March 28, 2017
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101208

Copyright: © 2017 Schuster et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Cataract surgery is the most frequently performed surgical procedure worldwide. We aim to determine the prevalence of having implanted an artificial lens (pseudophakia) and of no lens (aphakia) and to compare visual function.

As part of the Gutenberg Health study, a population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Germany. An ophthalmological examination including slit-lamp examination was conducted. Prevalence including 95% confidential intervals were calculated and analyses were conducted for systemic and ocular associated factors with pseudophakia using multivariable logistic regression models. Vision-related quality of life was assessed using a standardized questionnaire and Rasch transformation.

14,696 people were included. Of these, 1.55% [1.36%–1.77%] had unilateral pseudophakia and 3.08% [2.81%-3.37%] had bilateral pseudophakia. Unilateral aphakia was present in 21 people and bilateral aphakia in 2 people. Pseudophakia was independently associated with age, higher body weight and lower body height, diabetes and smoking. Vision-related quality of life values were similar for those with bilateral phakia and pseudophakia but were lower for those with unilateral pseudophakia.

The pseudophakia status is related to several cardiovascular risk factors, indicating a relationship to an aging effect that causes premature lens opacification. Bilateral pseudophakia can almost imitate the physiological condition of phakia except for the need to use glasses.