Patients Who Fear Cataract Surgery Less Likely to Believe Surgery Will Improve Vision

TUESDAY, May 27, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Neither health literacy nor understanding of cataract pathology is associated with fear of cataract surgery, according to a study published online March 28 in Clinical Ophthalmology.

Samantha Hu, from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and colleagues assessed the relationship between health literacy and perceptions surrounding fear of cataract surgery and fear of vision loss. The analysis included 42 patients (50 years and older) presenting to a Midwestern, urban, safety-net hospital-based clinic.

The researchers observed no association between score on the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Short Form and fear of cataract surgery. There was a significant association seen between fear of cataract surgery and belief that cataract surgery would improve vision; however, there was no significant association between fear of vision loss and belief that cataract surgery would improve vision. For patients with best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) worse than 20/40 in only one eye, fear of cataract surgery was greater than that seen in patients with BCVA more than 20/40.

“In our patient population, neither health literacy nor understanding of cataract pathology was associated with fear of cataract surgery,” the authors write. “However, given patients who feared cataract surgery were less likely to believe cataract surgery would improve vision, clarifying goals of surgery and addressing patient fears should be prioritized. Interestingly, this may be more important at earlier stages of non-visually significant cataracts for patients with good vision.”

Abstract/Full Text