Cumulative effect of metabolic syndrome on the risk of retinal vein occlusion in young patients: a nationwide population-based study

Abstract

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the impact of the cumulative burden of metabolic syndrome (MetS) on the incidence of retinal vein occlusion (RVO) in young adults. We included 1,408,093 subjects aged ≥ 20 and < 40 years without a history of RVO who underwent four consecutive annual health examinations during 2009–2012 from the database of the Korean National Health Insurance Service. The metabolic burden was evaluated based on the cumulative number of MetS diagnoses at each health examination (0–4 times) and the cumulative number of each MetS component diagnosed at each health examination (0–4 times per MetS component). Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the risk of RVO according to metabolic burden. The risk of RVO was positively correlated with the cumulative number of MetS diagnoses over the four health examinations. All five MetS components were independently associated with an increased risk of RVO. Subgroup analysis for the impact of MetS on RVO occurrence revealed that MetS had a greater impact on female subjects (P < 0.001). Prompt detection of metabolic derangements and their treatment might be important to decrease the risk of RVO in young adults, especially women.