In Reply.
—Various observational studies have produced conflicting evidence about the role of aspirin in slowing cataract formation. Our study did show a protective effect for aspirin, but only for the posterior subcapsular and mixed types of cataract. Whether the finding for the mixed types could be attributed to the posterior subcapsular opacities included in the mixed-case group could not be determined.Drs van Heyningen and Harding found no statistically significant difference in aspirin consumption between cataract cases and controls in the published studies they cited, but they did report a protective effect for a pooled group of "aspirin like" analgesics. Criteria for inclusion in this group of analgesics have not been specified, and, as the authors indicated in their report, a mechanism for the protective effect for this diverse group of compounds is not immediately obvious. Two randomized trials among healthy male physicians, designed primarily to evaluate the role