Abstract
Purpose :
Early-onset cataracts (EOC) are associated with increased risk for cancer, cardiovascular diseases and stroke. However, research on risk factors for EOC is limited. This study tested the hypothesis that EOC may be related to the lifestyle risk factors, such as smoking, physical inactivity, and sleep duration.
Methods :
The 45 and Up Study is a cohort study of 267,180 adults aged 45 years and older in New South Wales, Australia. This retrospective study linked the questionnaire data in baseline (2006-2009) in the 45 and Up study with hospitalization data to 31 December 2016 and identified the persons underwent cataract surgery during the follow up. People underwent first cataract extraction at the age of 55 or younger was defined as the EOC group. The control group was identified as people underwent first cataract extraction at the age of 75 or older. Uni-variate and multi-variable logistic regression analyses were used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) for EOC by lifestyle factors, systemic comorbidities, reproductive factors, and socioeconomic factors.
Results :
Overall, 43488 participants underwent cataract surgery, including 601 with EOC and 15904 treated surgically at age 75 or older. After adjusting for comprehensive potential confounding factors, EOC treated surgically was significantly associated with sleep duration (>9 hours vs <7 hours; OR, 0.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.12-0.62) and screen time (< 8 hours/day vs ≥8 hours/day; OR, 3.95; 95% CI, 2.38-6.55). Other factors independently associated with an increased risk of EOC were history of anxiety (OR, 3.43; 95%CI, 1.79-6.59) and asthma (OR, 1.71; 95%CI, 1.03-2.83). The body mass index, smoking status, physical activity, vegetable and fruit eating, and parity factors were significantly associated with EOC in the univariate analyses, but the significance disappeared in the multivariable analyses.
Conclusions :
Lifestyle factors such as screen time and sleep duration were independently associated with EOC treated surgically. Alcohol consumption and reproductive factors had little, if any, association with EOC risk.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.