Purpose: To assess the long-term outcomes from cataract surgery on self-rated health, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a population-based older sample.

Methods: Participants of the Blue Mountains Eye Study at the baseline (n=3654), 5 (n=2335), and 10-year follow-up (n=1952) were interviewed and examined. Questionnaires included an assessment of self-rated health and HRQOL using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Incident cataract surgery was defined if participants had cataract surgery since baseline, and confirmed via lens photographic grading.

Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the proportions of participants who experienced a change in self-rated health between those who had incident cataract surgery (14.1% improvement; 29.1% deterioration) and non-surgical subjects (16.7% improvement; 27.0% deterioration). We found no association between incident cataract surgery and the odds for 10-year change in self-rated health, after multivariate adjustment. In contrast, participants who had incident cataract surgery had a significant improvement in the mean scores of 'mental health' domain of HRQOL (+1.60 vs-2.04, P=0.02) and in the mental component score (+1.43 vs-0.82, P=0.02) than participants who did not undergo surgery. Cataract surgery during follow-up had no significant influence on change in mean scores of other domains or in their physical component score of the SF-36 (-2.57 in participants who had incident surgery vs-2.29 in non-surgical participants, P=0.78).

Conclusions: We confirmed long-term improvement following cataract surgery in the mental but not in the physical domain of the SF-36 or in answers to a specific self-rated health question.