Cataract surgery decreases a woman's risk of early death by 60%, study finds

Women who have surgery to treat cataracts are 60 percent less likely to suffer an early death, a study has found.

The study's researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) found they are also less likely to die from vascular, infectious, neurological and pulmonary diseases and cancer.

Experts say this might come down to the fact that women who receive the operation can function more safely than women living with cataracts.

For the study, researchers accessed data collected from 1993 to 2015 for a clinical trial called the Women's Health Initiative (WIH). The researchers analyzed the records of 74,044 women who were 65 or older who had cataracts, and they found 41,735 of them had operations to treat the cloudy spots on their eyes.

Cataracts are spots in people's eyes that cause their vision to be impaired, and they can make it difficult for someone to read, see other people's faces or drive a car. Having cataracts in both eyes can make your surroundings seem foggy. People have cataract surgery to have the clouded lens on their eye removed, and a doctor replaces it with an artificial lens that is clear.

The study's researchers concluded that one explanation for cataract surgery recipients' greater chances of survival might be because they have a higher socioeconomic status that affords them greater healthcare. In addition to this, previous research has associated receiving cataract surgery with a lower risk of falling and fracturing bones.

While the study acknowledges that one of its limitations is that it only focuses on women, females have worse eye health than males.