A Study on the Relationship between Eye Disease and Nutrient Intake in Korean Adults: Data from Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015, 2016

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of the differences in nutrient intakes on the onset of eye disease in the ophthalmic disease group vs. the normal group. The analysis method of this study was performed by adjusting age and gender. The daily caloric intake was 1,672.1±26.4 kcal in the ophthalmic disease group which was significantly lower than the 2,041.5±13.6 kcal intake in the normal group (P=0.006).The intake of proteins (P=0.015) and carbohydrates (P=0.000) was significantly lower in the ophthalmic disease group than in the normal group. The incidence of eye diseases was found to decrease by about 0.79 (95% CI 0.74∼0.83) times as the NAR index of protein was increased, followed by 0.79 (95% CI 0.64∼ 0.98) times with an increase in niacin consumption. In this study, income, BMI, smoking, alcohol consumption, and quality of life were considered as the confounding variables related to eye disease, along with age and gender, but did not lead to show significant results. It was found that the ophthalmic disease group had an unbalanced nutritional intake compared to the normal group. Therefore, we conclude that nutrition education is necessary to ensurebalanced eating habits for management and prevention of degeneration after the onset of eye diseases.