Impact of Postponement of Appointments on Vision and Psychological Well-Being Among Outpatients Attending Ophthalmology Clinics: A Malaysian Perspective

INTRODUCTION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, non-frontline medical disciplines, including ophthalmology, were advised to minimize their services to channel crucial healthcare resources to manage the surge in COVID-19 cases. The ophthalmology department postponed all non-urgent appointments and elective surgical procedures. However, little is known about the visual and mental health impact of these changes in ophthalmology services. Therefore, our study aimed to explore the impact of postponement in ophthalmology outpatient clinic appointments towards visual acuity (VA) changes and the psychological well-being of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia.

METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional study, utilizing a convenience sampling method, recruited patients attending ophthalmology outpatient clinic services from July 2020 to June 2021 to participate in the study. The Snellen chart was used to measure the VA, and the Kessler psychological distress scale (K-10) was used to measure psychological distress levels among patients with (study) and without (controls) postponement of the appointment.  Results: A total of 485 patients were included in the data analysis; 267 study and 218 controls. There is a statistically significant difference in categorical change of VA (p < 0.001) and categorical K-10 score (p = 0.048) among the study and control groups. Nonetheless, a decline in VA alone does not show a statistically significant association with an increased probability of experiencing psychological distress (p=0.149).

CONCLUSION: Postponement of ophthalmology appointments negatively affected the VA and the psychological well-being of patients. Appropriate assessment of patients before postponing their appointment is crucial to mitigate the worsening of VA and psychological distress.