ABSTRACT

Glaucoma, cataracts, and cognitive decline are most common in older ages. Although cross-sectional studies showed that these disorders are associated, follow-up studies are lacking. To investigate this issue, baseline and follow-up data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) were employed. We evaluated participants ≥ 55 years-old at follow-up without diagnosis of dementia, stroke, and other eye conditions except for glaucoma and cataracts. Cognition was evaluated using delayed word recall, verbal fluency, and trail making (version B) tests. Regression models were employed to investigate associations between glaucoma and cognition, adjusted by several confounders. Out of 3,867 participants, 379 and 118 presented cataracts and glaucoma, respectively. Only glaucoma was apredictor of lower verbal fluency (B = −0.23, 95% CI −035 to −012, p< 0.001). Other associations were not significant (ps>0.57). Our results suggest that glaucoma may be related to declining cognition.

摘要

青光眼、白内障和认知能力下降在老年人中最为常见。尽管横断面研究表明这些疾病是相关的，但缺乏后续研究。为了调查这个问题，采用了巴西成人健康纵向研究 (ELSA-Brasil) 的基线和后续数据。我们在随访时评估了 55 岁以上的参与者，没有诊断出痴呆、中风和其他眼部疾病（青光眼和白内障除外）。使用延迟单词回忆、语言流畅性和线索制作（B 版）测试评估认知。回归模型被用来研究青光眼和认知之间的关联，由几个混杂因素调整。在 3,867 名参与者中，分别有 379 和 118 人患有白内障和青光眼。只有青光眼是较低语言流畅度的预测因子（B = -0.23，95% CI -035 到 -012，p < 0.001)。其他关联不显着（ps>0.57）。我们的研究结果表明，青光眼可能与认知能力下降有关。