Association between Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution and Age-Related Cataract: A Nationwide Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study

Jinyoung Shin, Hyungwoo Lee and Hyeongsu Kim
Additional contact information
Jinyoung Shin: Department of Family Medicine, Konkuk University Medical Center, Seoul 05030, Korea
Hyungwoo Lee: Department of Ophthalmology, Konkuk University Medical Center, Seoul 05030, Korea
Hyeongsu Kim: Department of Preventive Medicine, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul 05030, Korea

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 24, 1-11

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the association between ambient air pollutants and cataracts in the general population aged 50 years or older using data from the Korean National Insurance Service—National Sample Cohort. Cataract patients were defined as those diagnosed by a physician and having undergone cataract surgery. After matching the average concentrations of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO 2 , CO, SO 2 , and O 3 in residential areas, the association between quartile level of air pollutants and incidence of cataract was analyzed using a multivariate Cox-proportional hazard risk model. Among the 115,728 participants, 16,814 (14.5%) were newly diagnosed with cataract and underwent related surgery between 1 January 2004, and 31 December 2015. Exposure to PM 10 , NO 2 , and SO 2 was positively associated with cataract incidence, while O 3 was negatively associated. The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval was 1.069 (1.025–1.115) in PM 10 and 1.080 (1.030–1.133) in NO 2 . However, the association between cataract and the quartile of PM 2.5 measured during one year in 2015 was not clear. The HR of female participants aged 65 or older was significantly increased according to quartile of air pollutants. We identified exposure to PM 10 , NO 2 , SO 2 , and O 3 associated with cataract development in Korean adults aged ≥ 50 years. This information may be helpful for policymaking to control air pollution as a risk factor for eye health.

Keywords: air pollution; cataract; particulate matter; insurance claim review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9231/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9231/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:24:p:9231-:d:459886

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().