Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the risk factors for nuclear, cortical and posterior subcapsular (PSC) lens opacities in adult Chinese-Americans, CHES.
Methods :
Data for these analyses was derived from CHES, a population-based sample of adult Chinese Americans. All participants underwent a home interview and a comprehensive eye examination, including assessment of the lens at the slit lamp–based Lens Opacities Classification System II (LOCS II). Lens opacities were defined by a grade > 2 in either eye. Participants were considered to have nuclear only, cortical only or PSC only if that was the only type of opacity present in both eyes. The reference group was participants who had a LOCS II grading but no opacities. Chi-square tests and univariate logistic regression were used to evaluate the associations of the risk factors, adjusted for age and gender. Multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the association between independent socio-demographic and biological factors with each opacity type. PSC opacities had only 7 cases and were not able to assess the risk factor associations. All statistical testing was conducted at the 0.05 significance level, using SAS (SAS Institute, Cary, NC).
Results :
Of the 5,782 eligible subjects, 4,582 (79.2%) completed the eye examination. Of the participants with LOCS II grading (n=4,234), 927 (21.9%) had nuclear-only opacities, 386 (9.1%) had cortical-only, 7 (0.2%) had PSC-only opacities, and 2,363 had no opacities. The nuclear only group had a higher mean age (62 years, SD ±8) compared to the no opacities (mean age was 57 years, SD ± 6), p<0.0001. Multivariate analyses revealed that older age (OR=1.5), higher waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), (OR=1.3), HDL levels (OR=1.2), high systolic blood pressure (OR=1.1) and having diabetes mellitus (OR=1.5) were independently associated with nuclear opacities, all p<0.01; and older age, family history of cataracts (OR=1.5), diabetes mellitus (OR=1.6) and shorter stature (OR=1.4) were associated with cortical opacities, all p <0.01.
Conclusions :
CHES identified several sedentary lifestyle-related outcomes associated with lens opacities, including higher WHR, higher systolic blood pressure and presence of diabetes. Improved glycemic control, blood pressure control and a more active lifestyle may help reduce the burden of vision loss associated with lens opacities.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.