Statins Linked with Reduced Cataracts
&NA; · Emergency Medicine News · 2006
The use of stains is linked with lower occurrence of nuclear cataracts, the most common type of age-related cataracts, which occurs in the center of the lens, according to a study published in the June 21 Journal of the American Medical Association. Barbara E.K. Klein, MD, MPH, of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, WI, and colleagues analyzed data from the Beaver Dam Eye Study to determine if statin use is associated with a reduced risk of age-related cataract. The analysis included 1,299 people examined as part of a study from 1998 to 2000 deemed at risk of developing nuclear cataract within five years. In that time interval and also from 2003 to 2005, 210 people developed incident nuclear cataract. The five-year occurrence of nuclear cataract was 12.2 percent in statin users compared with 17.2 percent in nonusers. The odds of developing cataracts were 40 percent lower for statin users after adjusting for several factors. Smoking and diabetes increase the risk of nuclear cataract, so the researchers analyzed results in nonsmokers without diabetes. The researchers found that the odds of developing nuclear cataract was 60 percent lower among stain users after adjusting for other factors. The occurrence of cortical and posterior subcapsular cataracts did not differ between statin users and nonusers.