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Adults with ASD show higher rates of glaucoma, cataract, and other eye conditions

Kelsey Moroz

Key Takeaways

  1. Adults with ASD had nearly double the prevalence of any documented ocular condition.
  2. ASD was associated with higher odds of glaucoma, cataract, dry eye disease, strabismus, and refractive error.
  3. Findings support autism-informed screening and follow-up in adult eye care.

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) had a higher documented prevalence of several treatable ocular conditions than matched adults without ASD, according to a study.

The analysis included data from the National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program and included 1,050 adults with ASD and 4,200 matched controls. The mean age was 39.1 years.

Overall, 29.5% of adults with ASD had at least 1 documented ocular condition compared with 17.8% of controls. Higher prevalence was also observed for refractive or accommodative error (22.3% vs 14.0%), cataract (9.9% vs 5.2%), dry eye disease (9.0% vs 5.5%), glaucoma (3.6% vs 1.5%), and strabismus (3.8% vs 1.7%).

After adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic factors, ASD remained associated with significantly greater odds of any ocular condition, glaucoma, strabismus, cataract, refractive or accommodative error, and dry eye disease. The associations were consistent across unadjusted and adjusted analyses.

Reference

Pulukuri SV, Santra R, Rowe S, et al. Ophthalmic Disease Burden in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Am J Ophthalmol. 2026;S0002-9394(26)00399-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2026.07.023. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 42448078.

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