Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40740675›Full record

ArticleThe Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia2025

Financial vulnerability of the elderly population undergoing cataract surgery within a distributed eye care delivery system in India (2011-2022): a multicentre, retrospective cohort study.

Brijesh Takkar, Ragukumar Venugopal, Mehul Mehta, Anthony Vipin Das, Varsha Rathi, Rohit Khanna, Gudlavalleti V S Murthy, Hemendra Kumar Vaishnav, Brijesh Kashyap, Chirantan Chatterjee and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Brijesh TakkarIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Ragukumar VenugopalIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Mehul MehtaIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Anthony Vipin DasIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Varsha RathiIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Rohit KhannaIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Gudlavalleti V S MurthyIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Hemendra Kumar VaishnavIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Brijesh KashyapIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Chirantan ChatterjeeIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Raja NarayananIndian Health Outcomes, Public Health, and Economics Research Center, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: The health burden of geriatric eye care is expected to rise, yet medical insurance uptake among the elderly population remains low. There is minimal evidence regarding insurance uptake for eye care among the elderly population in the Southeast Asia region. We explored insurance uptake and its impact on visual outcomes among the elderly population who visited an eye care system distributed across four Indian states. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we used a browser-based proprietary, Hospital Information Management System (HIMSS) stage six, electronic medical record (EMR) system. Datasets were collected from new patients who visited the four tertiary centres with linked primary and secondary centres of our pyramidal health system (L V Prasad Eye Institute [India]) distributed in four Indian states, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, and Karnataka, between August 2011 and December 2022. The electronic medical records of 38,387 patients aged >70 years who underwent cataract surgery were included (45.5% were females [17,471]). Individuals treated with fully subsidised care were excluded. Data on age, health insurance uptake, type of health insurance (government or private), and mode of payment for cataract surgery were collected. Factors impacting insurance uptake and visual outcomes were studied using logistic regression analysis. Findings: Insurance uptake declined from 17.5% among people aged 70 years to less than 10% among those aged >85 years. Private insurance uptake declined from 13.3% among people aged 70 years to 4.7% among those aged 90 years, while publicly funded insurance remained between 3.3% and 4.2%. Insurance uptake increased during 2018-2022 compared to 2011-2017 (20.61% vs. 10.65%; p < 0.001). A higher proportion of males had insurance uptake compared to females. Median waiting times for surgery among patients with government versus private insurance were 18 and 11 days, respectively. Among patients aged >80 years, surgical outcomes for those without insurance were worse than for those with insurance. Interpretation: Insurance uptake declined dramatically in patients aged above 80 years and was associated with poorer visual outcomes following cataract surgery, as the insurance uptake may impact the quality of eye care received. Policy changes are needed to increase insurance uptake for eye care in this population. Funding: DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance, Clinical Research Centre Grant IA/CRC/19/1/610010; Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation (HERF).

Indexed as

CataractEye care for elderlyEye care policyGeriatric eye careHealth insurance for old peopleInsurance uptakeOphthalmologyOut-of-pocket expenditures

Identifiers

PMID40740675
PMCPMC12309920

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.