Evaluation of the relationship between patients' cataract disease and their work, at an ophthalmology clinic of A University Hospital

It is aimed to determine whether the current or previous works of the patients who visited to the ophthalmology clinic of a university hospital and some of the factors encountered during working hours, lead to a relative risk increase for cataract disease. Data were collected through a face-to-face interview between November 2018 and May 2019 in a case-control study setting. For each cataract patient, a control patient without cataract was matched in terms of gender and age and a total of 554 people were included in the study. In both groups, 61.0% of the participants were women and the median age was 63.0. Among patients with cataract, illiterate, college or above graduate, myopia, age-related macular degeneration, diabetes, corticosteroid-containing drug use and the percentage of those who had an eye injury were statistically significantly higher than controls (p<0.05). 22.4% of cases and 11.9% of controls had occupational ultraviolet radiation exposure (p=0.001); odds ratio was 2.1 (95% CI: 1.3-3.4) in univariate analysis; and 1.9 (95% CI: 1.1-3.2), 2.0 (95% CI: 1.2-3.2) and 2.1 (95% CI: 1.3-3.3) in three logistic regression models. The cases were 2.3 (95% CI: 1.5-3.5) times more likely than the controls to have worked in jobs where they were exposed to at least one of the factors known to be associated with cataracts, or to have an occupational accident where they had an eye injury (p<0.001). 23.3% of the cases and 17.8% of the controls used personal protective equipment for the eye during at least one of their works. Employee trainings to improve awareness on possible health risks of related factors should be carried out and necessary precautions should be taken, including the use of protective equipment.