Barriers to the acceptance of cataract surgery in a hospital based population: A descriptive study

Introduction: Cataract is a leading cause of blindness in low and middle income countries like India. Despite free cataract services available in most government institution as part of national health program to curb blindness, there are certain barriers among people which prevent them from utilizing health services. Aim: To determine the possible reasons for delay in acceptance of cataract surgery at tertiary care ophthalmic centre. Materials and Methods: This is a questionnaire based descriptive study done at outpatient setting at tertiary care ophthalmic centre in northern India. The patient who were aware of the presence of cataract with visual acuity of < 6> Result: The study enrolled 356 patients with mean age of 58.6+6.23years. There were 199 (55.89%) males and 157 (44.11%) females. Mostly they belong to low socioeconomic class. The important barriers which came out in the study were ability to manage daily routine work 244(68.54%), additional cost of surgery 221 (62.07%), fear for surgery 216 (60.67%), ability to see with other eye 202 (56.74%), busy with work 181 (50.84%), and cataract not mature 136 (38.2%). Conclusion: There is need for individual and community health counseling regarding the cataract surgery so as to allay the fear and anxiety among the patients.