Cataract risk had a positive association with metabolic syndrome and negative with a traditional balanced diet in middle-aged adults

Abstract Background The prevalence of cataracts is steadily increasing among middle-aged and elderly Asians. We hypothesized that adults aged 40–77 years with cataracts would show an association with metabolic syndrome and its components and have different dietary patterns and lifestyles. Methods The study was performed using the Korean genome and epidemiology study (KoGES; a large-scale hospital-based cohort study) data collected during 2004–2013. Subjects were classified as cases(945 cataract patients) and controls(27,454 healthy controls) based on responses to the question "have you ever been diagnosed to have a cataract?”. Results The presence of metabolic syndrome had a significant positive association with cataract risk after adjusting for age, sex, resistance area, BMI and energy intake(model 1; by 1.23-fold) and socioeconomic parameters(model 2; 1.15-fold). Plasma glucose and HbA1c concentrations also exhibited a higher cataract risk by 1.92- and 2.07-fold, respectively. For the analysis we used four dietary patterns to represent Korean food intake, that is, a traditional balanced diet, a meat and fish diet, a bread and cookie diet, and a grain-based diet. High traditional balanced diet consumption had a negative association with cataract risk(OR = 0.84), but high grain-based diet consumption exhibited a positive association with cataract risk(OR = 1.41). Systolic blood pressure and high carbohydrate intake(OR = 1.42) were also associated with cataract risk in model 1, but high fat and protein intake showed negative associations(OR = 0.74 and 0.74, respectively). Conclusions The risk of cataract development was found to be positively associated with metabolic syndrome, high systolic blood pressure, and hyperglycemia and negatively associated with a traditional balanced diet.