Background: Biomass cooking fuels are commonly used in Indian households, especially by the poorest socioeconomic groups. Cataract is highly prevalent in India and the major cause of vision loss. The evidence on biomass fuels and cataract is limited.
Objectives: To examine the association of biomass cooking fuels with cataract and type of cataract.
Methods: We conducted a population-based study in north and south India using randomly sampled clusters to identify people ≥ 60 years old. Participants were interviewed and asked about cooking fuel use, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors and attended hospital for digital lens imaging (graded using the Lens Opacity Classification System III), anthropometry, and blood collection. Years of use of biomass fuels were estimated and transformed to a standardized normal distribution.
Results: Of the 7,518 people sampled, 94% were interviewed and 83% of these attended the hospital. Sex modified the association between years of biomass fuel use and cataract; the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for a 1-SD increase in years of biomass fuel use and nuclear cataract was 1.04 (95% CI: 0.88, 1.23) for men and 1.28 (95% CI: 1.10, 1.48) for women, p interaction = 0.07. Kerosene use was low (10%). Among women, kerosene use was associated with nuclear (OR = 1.76, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.97) and posterior subcapsular cataract (OR = 1.71, 95% CI: 1.10, 2.64). There was no association among men.
Conclusions: Our results provide robust evidence for the association of biomass fuels with cataract for women but not for men. Our finding for kerosene and cataract among women is novel and requires confirmation in other studies.
1Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology, Aravind Eye Care System, Madurai, India; 2Centre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India; 3Aravind Eye Care System, Madurai, India; 4Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India; 5Aravind Eye Hospital-Pondicherry, Pondicherry, India; 6Dipartimento di Scienze Otorino-Odonto-Oftalmologiche e Cervico Facciali, Universita` degli Studi di Parma, Parma, Italy; 7Centre for Vision and Vascular Science, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom; 8Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
Recommended Citation:
Thulasiraj D. Ravilla,1 Sanjeev Gupta,2 Ravilla D. Ravindran,et al. Use of Cooking Fuels and Cataract in a Population-Based Study: The India Eye Disease Study[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2016-01-01,Volume 124(Issue 12):1857