Cholesterol and diabetes drugs may lessen risk of degenerative eye disease of ageing

Age related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe visual impairment among older people in high-income countries. In Europe alone, 67 million people currently have the condition, with new cases projected to soar over the next few decades as populations age.

Regular use of drugs to lower cholesterol and control type 2 diabetes may lessen the risk of the degenerative eye disease associated with ageing, known as age related macular degeneration, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

The researchers pooled the results of 14 population-based and hospital-based studies, involving 38,694 people from France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Russia and the UK. The studies were part of the European Eye Epidemiology (E3) consortium, a collaborative pan European network, the principal aim of which is to develop and analyse large pooled datasets to further the understanding of eye disease and sight loss.

Participants were all over the age of 50 and taking at least one of the following types of drug to: lower cholesterol, including statins; control diabetes, including insulin; to dampen down inflammation, excluding steroids; and Levodopa, used to treat movement disorders caused by neurodegenerative disease.

The prevalence of age related macular degeneration ranged from 12% to 64.5% across the included studies 9332 cases in total while the prevalence of advanced (late) age related macular degeneration ranged from 0.5% to 35.5% 951 cases in total.

The pooled data analysis showed that drugs to lower cholesterol or control diabetes were associated with, respectively, 15% and 22% lower prevalence of any type of age related macular degeneration, after accounting for potentially influential factors.

This study is the first large pooled data analysis of its kind to use individual level data from various population-based and hospital-based studies, highlight the researchers. S

tudy suggests that regular intake of [lipid lowering] and antidiabetic drugs is associated with reduced prevalence of age related macular degeneration in the general population. Given a potential interference of these drugs with pathophysiological pathways relevant in age related macular degeneration, this may contribute to a better understanding of AMD aetiology, they ended.

Reference:

Cholesterol and diabetes drugs may lessen risk of degenerative eye disease of ageing; BMJ British Journal of Ophthalmology, DOI: 10.1136/bjo-2022-321985.