A systematic review and meta-analysis published in Ophthalmology found cataract surgery may be associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment and dementia.
The review, including 24 articles comprising 558,276 participants, found that cataract surgery was associated with a 25% reduced risk of long-term cognitive decline compared with patients with uncorrected cataracts. This cognitive benefit was seen across various outcomes and remained robust to sensitivity analyses, reported the Singaporean-based research team, adding that participants who underwent cataract surgery showed a similar risk of long-term cognitive decline as healthy controls without cataracts.
While cataract surgery was associated with a 4% improvement in short-term cognitive test scores among participants with normal cognition, no significant association was observed among participants with preexisting cognitive impairment.
