Table 1. Demographic distribution of patients undergoing cataract surgery in 112 eye hospitals in 50 countries, by individual preoperative visual acuity (VA).

Variable	VA
	BL/SVIa			MVIb			NNVc			NVd			Total
	No.	%		No.	%		No.	%		No.	%		No.	%
Gender
Male	1515	28		1655	31		1139	21		1015	19		5324	100
Female	1612	29		1713	31		1246	23		907	17		5478	100
Age (years)
< 50	277	23		258	21		229	19		441	37		1205	100
50–59	438	26		505	30		365	22		354	21		1662	100
60–69	1061	29		1203	33		814	22		563	15		3641	100
70+	1351	31		1402	33		977	23		564	13		4294	100
Literacy
Yes	773	15		1486	30		1357	27		1414	28		5030	100
No	2354	41		1882	33		1028	18		508	9		5772	100
First eye surgery	334	12		747	28		836	31		765	29		2682	100
No
Yes	2793	34		2621	32		1549	19		1157	14		8120	100
Surgical outpute
< 1 000	1060	35		885	30		602	20		440	15		2987	100
1000–2999	1026	29		927	26		801	23		788	22		3542	100
≥ 3 000	1041	24		1556	36		982	23		694	16		4273	100
Hospital specializationf
0 (very low)	634	38		432	26		290	18		294	18		1650	100
1	713	35		620	30		430	21		292	14		2055	100
2	466	34		426	31		262	19		211	15		1365	100
3	571	26		695	32		574	26		365	17		2205	100
4 (very high)	701	21		1129	34		777	23		730	22		3337	100
Total	3127	29		3368	31		2385	22		1922	18		10 802g	100

BL/SVI, blindness or severe visual impairment; MVI, moderate visual impairment; NNV, nearly normal vision; NV, normal vision.

^a VA < 6/60.

^b VA ≥ 6/60 but < 6/18.

^c VA ≥ 6/18 but < 6/12.

^d VA ≥ 6/12.

^e Number of cataract surgeries per year.

^f Data insufficient to calculate hospital specialization score in a further 190 individuals.

^g Full covariate data available on 10 802 individuals.