Abstract
Purpose :
Increasing numbers of studies have reported the association between chronic metabolic disorders and dry eye (DE) disease, but their results are inconsistent. Thus, we investigated the association between cardiometabolic disorders and DE in the general Korean population.
Methods :
A cross-sectional study was performed for 434 people aged 39 to 85 years living in a rural community of South Korea. Hypertension was defined as elevated blood pressure (SBP ≥140 mmHg or DBP ≥90mmHg) and/or treatment for hypertension. Diabetes was defined as elevated fasting blood glucose (≥126 mg/dl), elevated HbA1c (≥ 6.5%) and/or treatment for diabetes. Hypercholesterolemia was defined as elevated total cholesterol (>200 mg/dl) and/or use of lipid-lowering medication. Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) was used to assess DE symptoms, vision-related function, and environmental triggers, and presence of DE was defined as OSDI score 13 or higher.
Results :
Prevalence of DE was significantly higher in women than in men (48.0% vs. 26.9%, p<.0001). Men with hypertension showed higher prevalence of DE than those without hypertension (44.1% vs. 22.1%, p= 0.019). Men with hypertension had a significantly high odds ratio (3.29, 95% CI 1.39-7.76) for having DE disease after adjusting for age, body mass index, lifestyle factors, occupation, and chronic disease. However, in women, the prevalence of DE was not significantly associated with hypertension (p= 0.799). When three sectors of OSDI were separately analyzed, DE symptoms was inversely associated with hypercholesterolemia (p=0.077) only in women. Poor vision-related function was positively associated with hypertension (p=0.026) in men but inversely associated in women (p=0.054); environmental triggers were associated with hypertension (p=0.028) and diabetes (p=0.053) only in men.
Conclusions :
We observed significant sex-difference in the association between cardiometabolic disorders and DE. Further studies are required to confirm the sex-specific relationship and identify pathophysiological mechanisms underlying sex differences.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.