Association between self-reported smoking behaviour and Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy: A cross-sectional analysis

Purpose: To investigate whether smoking is associated with Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD). Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study. Subjects: Research Program were matched 1:10 to controls using propensity scores based on age, sex, self-reported race/ethnicity, and annual household income. Methods: Self-reported smoking behaviour was obtained from survey data. Primary outcomes assessed cigarette-related smoking behaviour among individuals with FECD compared to matched controls, and secondary outcomes evaluated the use of other tobacco and nicotine products. Conditional logistic and fixed-effects linear regression models were applied to examine binary and continuous outcomes, respectively. Results: The matched cohort included 13,409 participants (1,219 FECD cases and 12,190 controls). The odds of ever smoking ≥100 cigarettes did not differ between groups (OR=0.95, 95% CI=[0.85, 1.08], p=0.4). FECD cases reported a slightly shorter total duration of smoking (MD=-2.69, 95% CI=[-4.22, -1.15], p