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Alcohol, smoking, and cataracts: the Blue Mountains Eye Study
1Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Objective:
To investigate the associations between alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking, and cataract.
Design:
A population-based, cross-sectional study.
Setting:
An urban community in the Blue Mountains, close to Sydney, Australia.
Participants:
Three thousand six hundred fifty-four people aged 49 to 97 years. The participation rate was 82%.
Main Outcome Measures:
Smoking history and details of current alcohol consumption were assessed by questionnaire. Lens photographs were taken and graded for presence and severity of cortical, nuclear, and posterior subcapsular cataracts.
Results:
After adjusting for multiple potential confounders, people who had ever smoked cigarettes had a higher prevalence than nonsmokers of more severe nuclear (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-1.6) and posterior subcapsular (adjusted OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.1-2.1) cataracts. The association between pipe smoking and nuclear cataract (adjusted OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.5-8.2) was stronger than the association with cigarette smoking. Alcohol consumption was associated with a reduced prevalence of cortical cataract: compared with people who did not drink, the adjusted OR for cortical cataract among people who drank at least 1 drink a day was 0.7 (95% CI, 0.6-0.9). Heavy alcohol consumption (> or =4 drinks a day) was associated with nuclear cataract in current smokers (adjusted OR compared with nondrinkers, 3.9; 95% CI, 0.9-16.6) but not in never smokers.
Conclusions:
Consistent with other studies, smoking was associated with a higher prevalence of nuclear and posterior subcapsular cataracts. The only adverse effect of alcohol was among smokers: people who smoked and drank heavily had an increased prevalence of nuclear cataract.
