title: Association Between Cataract and Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation: A Nationwide Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study.
abstract: To identify the association between cataract and the subsequent atrial fibrillation (AF) risk.
  
  
  
  Our retrospective cohort study was designed to analyze the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 of the Taiwan National Health Insurance program. We established a cataract cohort (n=39,347) and a noncataract cohort (n=39,347) to observe the incidence of AF. The cataract cohort included patients who were newly diagnosed with cataract from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2010. Propensity score matching was used to form matched sets of participants with cataract and participants without cataract who share a similar value of propensity score. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess the association between having a cataract and AF.
  
  
  
  The median (range) follow-up period was 6.52 years (range, 3.76-9.19 years) and 5.88 years (range, 3.12-8.66 years) for the cataract and noncataract cohorts, respectively; the cumulative incidence curves of AF indicated that the cataract cohort had a significantly higher risk of developing AF than did the noncataract cohort (P<.001). Moreover, the risk of AF was 1.32-fold (95% CI, 1.18-1.48) higher in patients with cataract with surgery and was 1.21-fold (95% CI, 1.06-1.37) higher in patients with cataract without surgery than in patients without cataract.
  
  
  
  The present study is the first to report that cataract is associated with an increased risk of AF.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan. Electronic address: weisyunhu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wei-Syun
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Cheng-Li
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002386:Cataract / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015897:Comorbidity; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007345:Insurance Claim Review / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D057216:Propensity Score; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology