Cataract removal may lower risk of developing dementia

Cataract extraction was found to be significantly associated with a lower risk of developing dementia in older adults, according to results of a cohort study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

In this prospective, longitudinal cohort study, 3038 patients ≥65 years of age who were dementia-free at enrollment in the Adult Changes in Thought study and had a diagnosis of cataract or glaucoma before enrollment or during follow-up were included.

Cataract extraction was associated with significantly reduced risk of dementia compared with participants who did not undergo extraction after controlling for other risks. Glaucoma surgery was not found to have a significant association with dementia risk.

“If validated in future studies, cataract surgery may have clinical relevance in older adults at risk of developing dementia,” the authors concluded.

Reference
Lee CS, Gibbons LE, Lee AY, et al. Association Between Cataract Extraction and Development of Dementia. JAMA Intern Med. 2021;doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.6990