Association of baseline brain care score with the incidence of age-related eye diseases.

Authors

Jun Yu, Yuzhou Zhang, Yue Lan Gao, Mary Ho, Ka Wai Kam, Bo Gong, Alvin L Young, Chi Pui Pang, Clement C Tham, Jason C Yam, Li Jia Chen

Published in

Eye (London, England). Jul 04, 2026. Epub Jul 04, 2026.

Abstract

To evaluate the associations of baseline brain care score (BCS) with the incidence of age-related eye diseases (AREDs), and to examine the modifying effects of age and genetic susceptibility.
We included 382,221 UK Biobank participants without cataract, glaucoma, or age-related macular degeneration (AMD) at baseline. Baseline BCS (0-19 point) encompassed physical, lifestyle and social-emotional factors. Higher BCS scores indicated better brain care. Multivariable Cox regression was used to estimate associations between baseline BCS and incident cataract, glaucoma, and AMD. Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) were used to test gene-BCS interactions.
Over a median follow-up of 14.28 (interquartile range: 13.34-15.11) years, 44,033 cataract cases, 9280 glaucoma cases, and 6754 AMD cases were identified. Compared with the lowest baseline BCS quintile, the highest baseline BCS quintile was associated with lower risk of cataract (adjusted hazard ratios [HR]: 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.86-0.92), glaucoma (0.92, 0.86-0.98), and AMD (0.90, 0.83-0.97). Stronger associations of per 5-unit increase in baseline BCS with incident cataract (0.78, 0.71-0.85) and glaucoma (0.72, 0.64-0.83) were observed in participants aged 40-50 years than in older groups, with significant interactions with age (P-interaction < 0.001). A significant interaction between baseline BCS and PRS was observed for cataract (P-interaction < 0.001), but not for glaucoma or AMD.
Higher baseline BCS is associated with lower long-term risk of AREDs, especially in middle-aged individuals. These findings underscore BCS as a novel and potentially modifiable factor for AREDs.

PMID:
42401735
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 05 Jul 2026.

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