Psychological Impact of Cancellation of Elective Surgeries for Ophthalmic Patients During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Purpose To identify the psychological impact of canceling cataract operations on patients during COVID-19 pandemic.Methods 99 participants aged from 59 years old who had their cataract surgeries postponed or as scheduled, were studied using the standardized patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) and generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire (GAD-7) from April to June 2020 at Kowloon East Cataract Center, Tseung Kwan O Hospital, Hong Kong. ResultsNone of the patients who had the cataract surgeries rescheduled reached the cutoff score for major depression in PHQ-9, whereas for GAD-7, 5 patients had mild symptoms of anxiety, 1 had severe symptoms (p-value = 0.76). Conclusion There was no significant psychosocial impact of cancellation of cataract surgeries on patients.