Sedentary lifestyle tied to increased risk of dry eye diseases, finds study

It is already known that Sedentary behavior (SB) causes low-grade systemic inflammation, which plays a role in developing DED.

The researchers did a cross-sectional study to investigate "What is the association between Sedentary Behavior and Dry Eye Disease?"

The team assessed 48,418 participants from the population-based Lifelines cohort, including 58% females in the age group of 18-96 years.

The primary outcome measured was a Women's Health Study (WHS)-defined DED

The study points include the following:

• Marshall Sitting Questionnaire was used to assess SB.
• Logistic regressions were used to analyse the relationship between DED and SB corrected for age, sex, BMI, smoking, demographics, and 48 comorbidities.
• The modifying effect of physical activity (PA) was also assessed.
• 9.1% of participants had WHS-defined DED.
• Greater SB caused an increased risk of DED having an odds ratio (OR) of 1.015 per hour/day.
• SB and DED had significant associations only for those with less than WHO-recommended PA having OR 1.022.

We did not report a significant association when the computer-intensive sitting time was excluded.

"Screen use, sufficient physical activity and medical comorbidities are vital confounding factors in this association.

Physical activity plays an essential role in protecting against DED. Further studies are warranted to investigate this.

Further reading

Nguyen L, Magno MS, Utheim TP, Hammond CJ, Vehof J. The relationship between sedentary behavior and dry eye disease. The Ocular Surface. 2023 Jan;28:11-17. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtos.2023.01.002. PMID: 36621639