Age affects intraocular lens attributes preference in cataract surgery

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of age on intraocular lens (IOL) attributes preference. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We enrolled 4213 eyes that underwent smooth phacoemulsification and IOL implantation between January 2005 and June 2018. Patients were subdivided into six groups according to their ages, i.e.,≤40, 41–50, 51–60, 61–70, 71–80, and ≥ 81 years old. The difference in preference of IOL attributes regarding age, gender, and year of surgery was analyzed separately. The analyzed IOL attributes included asphericity, astigmatism-correction, presbyopia-correction, and blue-blocking function. RESULTS: The patients averaged 68.3 ± 11.6 years old at the time of surgery. There was no significant difference in age between males and females. There were 1980 patients (47.0%) selected aspheric IOL, 822 patients (19.5%) selected multifocal (MF) IOL, 93 patients (2.2%) selected toric IOL, and 859 patients (20.4%) selected blue-blocking IOL. Adoption of aspheric and MF IOL increased significantly during the study (P < 0.001 for both attributes). There were more young patients selected aspheric and MF IOL (P < 0.001 for both), and the change in the trend of adoption over the years was also most significant in the young group (P < 0.001 for both). The proportion of patients that selected blue-blocking IOL decreased significantly after 2011 (P < 0.001). There was no gender preference in aspheric, MF, and toric IOL selection. However, there were more male patients selected blue-blocking IOL (P = 0.018). CONCLUSION: The adoption of IOLs with emerging technologies increased significantly over the years. Younger adults tended to adopt advanced technology IOL more than the older ones.