Study: Cataract associated with higher mortality rate

Age-related cataract reflects the presence of systemic as well as local disease, a study suggests. Older people with cataract, particularly those who declined surgery after diagnosis, had an increased risk of death in the study, supporting previous research that suggests cataract is linked to systemic disease.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham performed the cohort study, in which they compared mortality rates among patients with cataract who elected to have surgery, patients with cataract who declined surgery and patients without cataract. They included 384 people in the study, which was performed at eye clinics associated with a hospital in Birmingham.

Of the 384 study subjects, 286 had cataract. Of those, 200 elected to undergo cataract surgery. Regardless of choice of surgery or no surgery, the patients with cataract had a significantly higher mortality rate than those without cataract. Patients who elected to have surgery had a crude mortality rate ratio of 3.9, and those who elected not to have surgery had a crude mortality rate ratio of 7.3.

After adjusting for age, gender, race, education, chronic medical conditions, smoking, drinking, depression and cognitive status, patients with cataract who elected against surgery had a higher mortality rate than those who were without cataract. A slightly higher mortality rate was found for patients who elected surgery compared with patients who did not have cataract.

When the study was limited to patients without diabetes or those without concurrent ocular conditions such as glaucoma, maculopathy or retinopathy, the adjusted mortality rate ratios were unaffected.

The study is published in Ophthalmic Epidemiology.