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Moderate alcohol consumption may be associated with lower incidence of cataract surgery
Am J Ophthalmol. 2010;150(3):434-440.
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Drinking one to two alcoholic beverages per day may be associated with a 50% decrease in long-term cataract surgery risk, a study found.
The prospective, population-based Blue Mountains Eye Study enrolled 3,654 Australian subjects age 49 years and older who were examined at baseline; 2,564 subjects were followed up at 5 years and/or 10 years. Alcohol consumption was determined by an interviewer-administered questionnaire.
Initially, the investigators found no distinct link between alcohol consumption and long-term risk of cataract surgery. However, after adjusting for age, gender, smoking, diabetes, myopia, socioeconomic status and steroid use, they found that subjects who drank two or more alcoholic beverages per day, as well as those who did not drink at all, showed a higher incidence of cataract surgery than those who drank one to two alcoholic beverages per day.
"Long-term follow-up data from this older population-based cohort suggest that moderate consumption of alcohol may be associated with a reduced need for cataract surgery," the authors said. "These findings should be interpreted with caution and need confirmation from future studies."