Elsevier

Survey of Ophthalmology

Volume 53, Issue 5, September–October 2008, Pages 512-525
Survey of Ophthalmology

Public Health and the Eye
Alcohol and Eye Diseases

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.survophthal.2008.06.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Alcohol consumption is a modifiable lifestyle factor, but there is uncertainty regarding its association with eye diseases in adults. A relationship between alcohol consumption and an increased risk of cataract has been reported from cross-sectional studies, but several prospective cohort studies have not found this association. Prospective population-based study findings suggest that heavy alcohol consumption is weakly related to an increased risk of age-related macular degeneration. Reports of an association of alcohol consumption and diabetic retinopathy have been limited mainly to cross-sectional data. There is little evidence of an association between alcohol consumption and glaucoma, and findings of association between alcohol consumption and increased intraocular pressure have been inconsistent. This review shows there is no consistent evidence supporting a major role of moderate alcohol consumption in the development or progression of common eye diseases. The effect of heavy alcohol consumption on different ocular conditions needs to be clarified, although heavy consumption of alcohol has significant detrimental social, mental, and medical consequences.

Section snippets

Definitions of Alcohol Consumption

Alcohol consumption is defined differently in various studies, in that the way in which heavy and light drinking is defined varies from study to study. For example, the Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES)16 and Beaver Dam Eye Study (BDES)45 defined heavy drinking as ≥4 drinks per day. In contrast, the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study (LALES) defined heavy drinking as ≥5 drinks on any day within the past year.21 Therefore, alcohol consumption is defined according to the number of standard drinks per day

Alcohol and Age-Related Cataract

Evidence from recent epidemiological studies on the relationship of alcohol consumption and cataract is summarized in Table 1. The relationship of alcohol and cataract was initially observed in several clinic-based case-control studies.14, 62, 66 A study of 238 surgical patients with posterior subcapsular cataract found that drinkers who consumed >7 drinks/week were more likely to have cataract surgery, compared to those who consumed ≤7 drinks/week.62 Another case-control study reported that

Future Research

This review demonstrates that many existing studies investigating a possible adverse effect of alcohol consumption on different eye diseases have significant limitations, and interpretation of results should be within the context of these limitations. These limitations also highlight areas of future research.

First, alcohol consumption, which is usually measured by self-report, may be misclassified by study participants due to the social stigma attached to heavy consumption and alcoholism. In

Conclusion

This review demonstrates that there is no consistent evidence supporting a major role of moderate alcohol consumption in the development or progression of ocular conditions. The role of heavy alcohol consumption in eye disease is still unclear, due to the limited number of heavy drinkers in most study samples. In general, available data do not support harmful effect of mild to moderate alcohol intake on the eye. Thus, there is no indication at present to change current guidelines regarding

Method of Literature Search

A systematic search on Medline with coverage up to March 2007 was conducted using the following keywords: alcohol in various combinations with eye (9,641), eye disease (6,740), ocular (3,148), cataract (1,091), lens opacity (563), glaucoma (2,580), intraocular pressure (2,680), maculopathy (41), macular degeneration (96), diabetic retinopathy (314), retinal arterial occlusion (16), retinal venous occlusion (5). Following the reviewing of abstracts, the full text of relevant articles in English

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