Faster biological aging linked to cataracts in US and UK
In the UK cohort, cataract hazard ratios—relative rate estimates—were 1.54 for retinal age acceleration, versus 1.05 and 1.06 for two other aging measures.
Limit: The abstract omits how much age acceleration each hazard ratio represents
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational study included 5,433 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey participants and 269,615 UK Biobank participants, all aged 40 or older. Researchers examined whether accelerated biological aging—being biologically older than expected for one’s calendar age—was associated with cataracts, which cloud the eye’s lens.
They analyzed measurements taken at one point in time and followed a UK cohort over time. Accelerated biological aging was linked to higher cataract risk in both analyses. In the UK follow-up, retinal age acceleration had a hazard ratio of 1.54. This measure estimates the relative rate of cataract over follow-up. The corresponding estimates were 1.05 for phenotypic age acceleration and 1.06 for age acceleration measured using the Klemera-Doubal method.
Why it matters
Cataracts are an age-related cause of vision loss. The authors suggest that accelerated biological aging might offer a potential target for cataract assessment and intervention.
Caveats
These observational associations do not show that faster biological aging causes cataracts or that slowing it would prevent them. The abstract does not report follow-up length or the amount of age acceleration represented by each hazard ratio.
The paper
Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences; Chinese University of Hong Kong
The British Journal of Ophthalmology, May 8, 2026
