We read with interest the letter to the editor by Fazzi and colleagues who report a negative correlation between anxiety (measured with the IDATE) and quality of life (measured with the WHO-QOL-BREF) in 52 patients with cataracts.1 They state: "This finding corroborates previous studies that have demonstrated low quality-of-life scores among patients with cataracts 2..."
We would like to clarify that the cited paper did not assess quality of life in patients with cataracts and hence did not demonstrate low quality-of-life scores among patients with cataracts.2 The study assessed a different latent trait - quality of vision, using the Rasch-scaled Quality of Vision (QoV) questionnaire.3 4 The QoV was completed before and three months after cataract surgery in 212 patients across four groups: first or second eye surgery, with or without ocular comorbidity. The study found that cataracts in one or both eyes causes a similar loss in subjective quality of vision, which is also irrespective of the presence of ocular comorbidity. Cataract surgery resulted in a large and comparable improvement in subjective quality of vision, regardless of ocular comorbidity and first or second eye surgery. 2 These improvements in quality of vision are in line with improvements using visual function and quality of life questionnaires following cataract surgery, which may indicate a relationship between these latent traits.5 6
Footnotes
ABM University Health Board, Swansea, United Kingdom
Editor's note: The authors of the article "The influence of anxiety on quality of life among patients with an indication for cataract surgery" chose not to send a reply to this letter.
Sources of funding: None
REFERENCES
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