Blepharitis is a common eye disorder that may be overlooked by patients and clinical practitioners. The symptoms of blepharitis often manifest as irritation, a burning sensation, grittiness, and itchiness and may decrease visual acuity if not treated promptly. Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), a common cause of blepharitis, is believed to be associated with increased inflammatory marker levels that may disrupt the composition of lipids produced by the sebaceous glands in the eyelids and ultimately cause tear film instability.
This is a retrospective, population-based study using National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) data from a 14-year period (2000–2015). Pearson chi-squared and Student's
A total of 67,014 patients who used statins were enrolled as the study cohort, and 268,056 patients who did not use statins were enrolled as the comparison cohort. The incidence of blepharitis was 3.04% with statin treatment and 3.72% without statin treatment (
Statin use can decrease the risk of developing blepharitis. However, further prospective studies are needed to evaluate statin treatment for various subtypes of blepharitis and to identify the associated mechanism.