Abstract:
The purpose of this work was to measure overall psychological distress and
specifically, levels of depression, anxiety and stress among pre-surgical cataract
patients presenting at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. One hundred and fiftyeight
patients who were preparing to have cataract surgery were quantitatively
assessed using the shortened form of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale
(DASS-21). Convenience sampling was used to recruit these participants. The
study found that the overall incidence of psychological distress among presurgical
cataract patients in the study was 73.4% and that patients experienced
anxiety the most. In light of the findings, it was concluded that pre-surgical
cataract patients experience high psychological distress, and it was
recommended that clinical health psychologists should work closely with eye
care professionals in the preparation of cataract patients for surgery. This
collaboration will go a long way to mitigate the high psychological distress that
patients experience before cataract surgery.
