[Quality of life assessment in children with congenital bilateral cataract]

To study the influence of congenital bilateral cataract on visual-related quality of life (QoL) in children.

The scale of QoL for children with congenital bilateral cataract was used to evaluate the QoL of 81 children with congenital bilateral cataract and 28 healthy children with normal visual acuity. The average age of congenital bilateral cataract candidates was 9.8 years (from 8 to 15 years) and 37 patients were female. Thirty-six cataract children took part in the both preoperative and postoperative investigations. The patients' QoL were also categorized by age, gender, score, visual acuity, surgery and density of cataract. Multiple-linear regression model was applied to analyze the influence factors of QoL.

Statistically significant difference was found at the QoL between healthy children and children with congenital bilateral cataract (P = 0.00). The QoL in children with non-dense cataract was increased after cataract surgery (P = 0.00). A high correlation was found between visual acuity and QoL (r = 0.53, P = 0.00). A statistically significant difference was found in QoL between dense and non-dense cataract (P = 0.00). Three variances enrolled in the multiple-linear regression equation included the density of cataract, surgery and visual acuity. Their partial regression coefficients were 6.14 (P = 0.00), 3.21 (P = 0.01) and 1.07 (P = 0.01) respectively.

Compared with the healthy children, the QoL score was severely impaired in children with congenital bilateral cataract, which was influenced by the density of cataract, surgery and visual acuity. Visual acuity is the most critical factor influencing the QoL.