Metabolic syndrome, its components and risk of age-related cataract extraction: a case-control study in Italy

We sought to explore the relationship between age-related cataract extraction and the metabolic syndrome or its various components separately and in various combinations in an Italian case-control study.

A total of 761 cases and 1,522 controls in hospital for acute, non-neoplastic, non-ophthalmologic, non-metabolic diseases were interviewed between 1991 and 2003. Odds ratios (ORs), and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs), were computed from multiple logistic regression models, conditioned on sex, age, and study center and adjusted for education and smoking.

The ORs were 1.41 for a history of central obesity, 1.42 for hypertension, 1.25 for hyperlipidemia, and 1.16 for diabetes. Patients with the metabolic syndrome (defined as the simultaneous presence of central obesity and at least two other factors among hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes) had an increased risk of cataract, with an OR of 2.01 (95% CI: 1.43-2.83). The ORs were 1.75 for the presence of any of two components and 2.50 for three to four components, with a linear trend in risk.

This study indicates that the metabolic syndrome, its components, and their combination are associated with an increased risk of cataract extraction in this Italian population.