Barriers in Uptake of Cataract Surgery in the Covid Era: Patient's Perceptions

Purpose: To evaluate the barriers in acceptance of cataract surgery during COVID-19(Coronavirus disease-2019) era. Material and methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in months of August and September 2020. Number of patients who refused the surgery were noted and compared with retrospective data of patients who refused cataract surgery in August and September 2019. The patients who refused cataract surgery were administered semi structured interview noting sociodemographic data, characteristics of cataract, reasons for refusing cataract surgery related to COVID-19 and otherwise and reasons for refusal to get tested for COVID-19. Results:Atotal of 100 patients (57 females and 43 males) who refused cataract surgery, 12 patients had visual acuity (VA) less than 6/60 and 50 had VAbetween 6/18-6/60. Amongst the barriers not relating to COVID-19 were daily activity not suffering(45) followed by fear of the surgery(25) and relating to hospital services were unwillingness for COVID-19 testing( 85), getting COVID-19infection from the hospital(24), lot of time is wasted (25)and they do not trust the level of precautions taken by the hospital at this point of time.(20) . Barriers related to COVID-19 were: refusal to get COVID-19 tested prior to surgery(85) , procedure is not an emergency, they want to defer it(51), their family members may get COVID-19 infection from them, if they get surgery at this time(15) , increase in nancial burden and owing to that they cannot get cataract surgery in this period(65) and lack of transport (25). Conclusions:COVID-19 has negatively impacted on cataract surgery uptake