Cataract linked to 30 chronic conditions

People with cataract appear more likely to have other chronic conditions, a recent study has found. Cataract is also associated with multimorbidity, defined as having at least two physical and/or mental chronic conditions.

Researchers cross-sectionally assessed 23,089 adults (mean age, 53.4±18.9 years; 54.1 percent women) enrolled from the 2017 Spanish National Health Survey. Cataract and chronic conditions were self-reported.

The prevalence rate of cataract was 12.5 percent; over half of the total sample (56.5 percent) met the definition for multimorbidity. Those with cataracts were significantly older and were more likely to be female and never smokers.

Thirty chronic conditions were surveyed for in the participants; all occurred significantly more frequently among those with cataracts (p<0.001 for all).

For example, 59.3 percent of cataract patients also had hypertension, as opposed to a prevalence of 22.4 percent in comparators without cataract. Osteoarthritis also had a large between-group discrepancy, present in 58.5 percent and 17.6 percent of participants with vs without cataracts.

Similar patterns were true for chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (13.3 percent vs 3.8 percent), diabetes (26.7 percent vs 7.4 percent), urinary incontinence (20.8 percent vs 3.8 percent), hypercholesterolaemia (46.2 percent vs 20.4 percent), and depression (23.7 percent vs 8.8 percent).

Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that cataract was significantly correlated with a higher likelihood of having multimorbidity (odds ratio, 2.77, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 2.39–3.21; p<0.001), which remained true when assessed according to sex and different age categories.

Similarly, multivariable negative binomial regression revealed a link between cataract and the number of chronic conditions (incidence rate ratio, 1.34, 95 percent CI, 1.29–1.38; p<0.001). This interaction was also stable in different sensitivity analyses.