Alcohol consumption and incident cataract surgery in two large UK cohorts

Alcohol consumption and incident cataract surgery in two large UK cohorts
A research project examined the association of alcohol consumption and type of alcoholic beverage with incident cataract surgery in two large cohorts.
469,387 participants of UK Biobank with a mean age of 56 years, and 23,162 participants of EPIC-Norfolk with a mean age of 59 years were included in the study. Participants self-reported alcohol consumption at baseline.
There were 19,011 (mean cohort follow-up of 95 months) and 4,573 (mean cohort follow-up of 193 months) incident cases of cataract surgery in UK Biobank and EPIC-Norfolk, respectively. Compared to non-drinkers, drinkers were less likely to undergo cataract surgery in UK Biobank (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.85-0.93) and EPIC-Norfolk (HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.84-0.97) after adjusting for covariables. Among alcohol consumers, greater alcohol consumption was associated with a reduced risk of undergoing cataract surgery in EPIC-Norfolk (P<0.001), while a U-shaped association was observed in the UK Biobank. Compared with non-drinkers, sub-group analysis by type of alcohol beverage showed the strongest protective association with wine consumption; the risk of incident cataract surgery was 23% and 14% lower among those in the highest category of wine consumption in EPIC-Norfolk and UK Biobank, respectively.
The researchers say that their findings suggest a lower risk of undergoing cataract surgery with low to moderate alcohol consumption. The association was particularly apparent with wine consumption, although they qualify their results by adding that they cannot exclude the possibility of residual confounding and further studies are required to determine whether this association is causal in nature.
Source: Chua SY, Luben RN, Hayat S, Broadway DC, Khaw KT, Warwick A, Britten A, Day AC, Strouthidis N, Patel PJ, Khaw PT, Foster PJ, Khawaja AP; UK Biobank Eye and Vision Consortium. Alcohol Consumption and Incident Cataract Surgery in Two Large UK Cohorts. Ophthalmology. 2021 Feb 8:S0161-6420(21)00114-7..