Utility assessment among cataract surgery patients

Purpose., To evaluate the utility values (time trade-off, standard gamble for death, standard gamble for blindness) of patients scheduled for cataract surgery. Setting: Tertiary eye hospital in Singapore. Methods: Questions on time trade-off, standard gamble for death, standard gamble for blindness utilities, and visual function from an adapted version of the VF-14 were asked in a clinic interview of 217 Chinese patients. Results: The mean utility time trade-off of cataract surgery patients was 0.77 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.76, 0.78), mean standard gamble for death was 0.77 (95% Cl 0.77,0.78), and mean standard gamble for blindness was 0.76 (95% CI 0.75,0.77). Adults with lower VF-14 scores had lower utilities, although there was no relationship between visual acuity and utilities. Utilities were also lower in patients who reported difficulty seeing in bright light. Conclusions: The utilities of cataract patients scheduled for surgery were comparable to those in patients with other chronic ocular diseases. Cataract surgery patients with lower utilities tended to have worse visual function and greater difficulty seeing in bright light. (c) 2005 ASCRS and ESCRS.