Vitamin D Levels in Young Adult Cataract Patients: A Case-Control Study

We aimed to investigate whether a relationship is present between early cataract formation and vitamin D in young adults.

A total of 37 cataract patients (18 males and 19 females) and 53 healthy participants (27 males and 26 females) under the age of 60 years were included in this study. The 25-OH vitamin D values were measured in all subjects and the mean vitamin D levels compared between the 2 groups. Additionally, the differences between the vitamin D levels of the genders in both groups were investigated.

The mean age of the study group was 48.1 ± 8.5 (range 33-59) years, and the mean age of the control group was 49.3 ± 7.8 (range 31-59) years (p = 0.48 and p = 0.83). The mean vitamin D level was 15.6 ± 8.4 ng/mL in the study group and 20.8 ± 7.1 ng/mL in the healthy subjects (p = 0.002). Among the females, the vitamin D level was 10.6 ± 4.7 ng/mL in the study group and 18.1 ± 6.4 ng/mL in the control group (p = 0.0001). No significant difference was found between the groups among the males (p = 0.24).

We found vitamin D deficiency to be associated with early age-related cataract in a statistically significant manner. We believe it is worth investigating the reason for this concurrence with large longitudinal studies.