Cataract surgery reduces risk of death in elderly women, finds study

The findings indicated that cataract surgery was linked with a reduced risk of death due to pulmonary, accidental, infectious, neurologic and vascular diseases and cancer.

Older women who undergo cataract surgery are at 60% reduced risk of death from all causes, suggests a recent study.

The findings indicated that cataract surgery was associated with a 60% reduced risk of death from all causes and a 37 to 69% reduced risk of death due to pulmonary, accidental, infectious, neurologic and vascular diseases and cancer. The study was conducted on a total of 74,044 women with cataracts, including 41,735, who underwent cataract surgery and the average age was 71 years.

Anne L Coleman from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) conducted the research from January 1993 till December 2015. Previous studies have suggested an association between cataract surgery and decreased risk from all causes of mortality potentially through a mechanism of improved health status and functional independence.

“Further study of the interplay of cataract surgery, systemic disease and disease-related mortality would be informative for improved patient care,” the authors concluded. The research appeared in the journal of JAMA Ophthalmology.