The risk of dementia or cognitive impairment in patients with cataracts: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate whether cataract disease is associated with the risk of developing dementia or cognitive impairment.

METHODS: A systematic search of the literature in PubMed, the Extracts Database (Embase), the Cochrane Library and the Web of Science databases was performed from the inception data of each database until 1 September 2022. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the robustness and reliability of the overall findings. All extracted data were statistically analyzed using Stata software v.16.0. Publication bias was assessed using funnel plots and the Egger test.

RESULTS: There were 11 publications included in this study, which consisted of 489,211participants, spanning 10 countries from 2012 to 2022. Aggregation suggested that cataracts were associated with cognitive impairment (odds ratio [OR] = 1.32; 95% CI: 1.21-1.43; I 2 = 45.4.%; p  = 0.000). The presence of cataracts is significantly associated with an increased risk of developing all-cause dementia (relative risk [RR] = 1.17; 95% CI: 1.08-1.26; I2 = 0.0%; p  = 0.000). In subgroup analyses, having cataracts may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.28; 95% CI: 1.13-1.45; I2 = 0.0%; p  = 0.000) and vascular dementia (HR = 1.35; 95% CI = 1.06-1.73; I2 = 0.0%, p  = 0.015). The data from the Egger's test showed no significant evidence of publication bias.

CONCLUSIONS: Cataracts are associated with the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, and vascular dementia.