Front Ophthalmol (Lausanne). 2026 Jun 15;6:1791334. doi: 10.3389/fopht.2026.1791334. eCollection 2026.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To investigate health-related quality of life (HRQoL), tobacco and alcohol consumption in Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) affected and carriers in Sweden.
METHODS: This cross-sectional case-control study included LHON affected and carriers from the Swedish LHON research registry. Age and sex matched healthy control (HC) references and references with other eye diseases were also included. Validated questionnaires on HRQoL, alcohol, smoking and smokeless-tobacco (snus) consumption were administered. The differences between groups and sub-groups (stratified for sex) were analyzed with ANOVA and independent samples t-test. Differences in prevalence of tobacco and alcohol consumption were evaluated with chi-square test.
RESULTS: 32 LHON affected and 32 carriers were included. Mean age at inclusion were 49.1 ± 19.7 years and 48.2 ± 17.7 years respectively. LHON affected and carriers did not show any significant difference in HRQoL compared to HC reference group. However, the affected males had significantly lower scores for role limitation due to physical health than affected females (67.1 ± 36.4 vs. 95.0 ± 15.8, p = 0.019). A higher prevalence of smoking (20%) and snus-use (33%) was seen among LHON affected. One-fourth of LHON affected had harmful or hazardous alcohol consumption risk classification.
CONCLUSIONS: The HRQoL was similar among the Swedish LHON cohort compared to HC references. Swedish LHON cohort showed a higher prevalence of smoking. Snus usage, and harmful or hazardous alcohol consumption were higher among LHON affected individuals.
PMID:42375928 | PMC:PMC13310744 | DOI:10.3389/fopht.2026.1791334