A Population-based Study of the Prevalence of Cataract and Its Relationship with Smoking in the Northwest of Iran: The Azar Cohort Eye Study.

Purpose: The purpose of the to determine the prevalence of cataract and study the relationship of smoking and other potential risk factors with visually significant cataract.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study based on the Azar cohort databases including 11,208 participants aged 35-70 years of the general population. According to the questionnaire, participants were divided into five groups in terms of smoking. Eye examinations were performed in two steps. The first step was performed by an optometrist, and in the second step, participants with poor red reflex or visual acuity of <8/10 were examined by an ophthalmologist for diagnosing cataract.

Results: Of the participants, 4992 (44.5%) were male and 6216 (55.5%) were female, with a mean age of 50.1 ± 9.27 years. The prevalence of visually significant cataract was 7.2%. The frequency of ex-smoking in the male and female population in the cataract group was significantly higher than that in the noncataract group (male: P = 0.008, female: P = 0.01), but after adjustment for age and education level, lost its significance (male odds ratio [OR] = 1.1 [0.8-1.5], P = 0.4; female OR = 1.5 [0.5-4], P = 0.3).

Conclusion: There is no association between cigarette smoking in different doses and the history of smoking with cataracts but other factors such as aging, education level, and underlying diseases including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and myopia have statistically significant association with visually significant cataract.