Cataract is one of the most common eye diseases that directly affects vision. If we want to make a general definition, in this disease, the lens of the eye, which should be transparent, becomes opaque and the person begins to lose vision over time. It should also be said that there is no escape from cataracts, which usually develop due to aging. As such, many scientific researches are being conducted both to develop treatments for this disease and to delay the disease. One of the important scientific researches reveals the incidence of cataracts in women and women. Let’s take a look at the research results and see if gender has any effect on cataracts.
Does Gender Have an Impact on Cataracts?
The research is based on 2019. According to the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study, the global prevalence of cataracts is 15.2% in people aged 45 years and older.
With this rate, according to the study, 68.7 million people worldwide were affected by cataract disease in 2019. In fact, the numbers reveal how common the disease is.
The most striking point as a result of all this research is that the prevalence of cataracts in women is 14% higher than in men. This shows that women are at higher risk.
The study concluded that decreases in estrogen levels after menopause may increase oxidative damage to the lens of the eye, which may accelerate the development of cataracts. Even when we evaluate only this data, we can say that women are in a higher risk group than men for various reasons.
For those who want to examine the full results of the research, we also add the article in which the research results were published below.
Source
- https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-022-14491-0
