Table 1 Preoperative characteristics of patients in the experimental and control groups

Patients/Eyes

487/592

481/609

N/A

N/A

Sex F

315 (64.7%)

290 (60.3%)

1.99

0.16

 M

172 (35.3%)

191 (39.7%)

Age (years)

69.04 ± 9.84

70.01 ± 9.58

1.550

0.12

Education level

Elementary school or below

435 (89.3%)

246 (51.1%)^*

178.807

< 0.001

Junior high school

50 (10.3%)

162 (33.7%)^*

High school or above

2 (0.4%)

73 (15.2%)^*

Cataract type

Age-related

561 (94.8%)

569 (93.4%)

0.957

0.33

Other

31 (5.2%)

40 (6.6%)

Lens nuclear sclerosis

 I–II

138 (23.3%)

211 (34.6%)^*

24.355

< 0.001

 III

294 (49.7%)

288 (47.3%)

 IV–V

160 (27.0%)

110 (18.1%)^*

UCVA

1.00 (0.69, 1.69)

0.92 (0.60, 1.30)

4.059

< 0.001

BCVA

0.82 (0.52, 1.30)

0.52 (0.30, 0.82)

11.76

< 0.001

VF score

48.48 (30.30, 60.61)

48.48 (27.27, 57.58)

0.479

0.63

QOL score

75.00 (61.11, 86.11)

75.00 (63.89, 83.33)

0.119

0.91