image: Conceptual illustration of retinal biological aging and its association with bone mineral density, fracture risk, and incident osteoporosis.
Credit: Clinical retinal screening photograph by the authors. Retinal photographs courtesy of the Singapore Eye Research Institute Research Clinic team. Trabecular bone 3D reconstruction image courtesy of Dr. Kenon Chua. Composite image assembled by Dr. Qingsheng Peng. CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Your retina's biological age might indicate osteoporosis risk, with accelerated retinal aging linked to lower bone density and increased risk of fractures.
Article URL: https://plos.io/3Pt8zpN
Article Title: Retinal biological age correlates with bone mineral density and fracture risk score and predicts incident osteoporosis
Author Countries: Australia, Republic of Korea, Singapore
Funding: This work was supported by the National Medical Research Council of Singapore (NMRC/CIRG/1488/2018 to C.Y.C.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Journal
PLOS Digital Health
Article Title
Retinal biological age correlates with bone mineral density and fracture risk score and predicts incident osteoporosis
Article Publication Date
14-May-2026
COI Statement
Competing Interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: T.H.R. was a former scientific advisor to Mediwhale and owns stock in the company. C.Y.C. has received consulting fees from Mediwhale and is a co-founder of Eye.AI. These relationships did not influence the study design, analysis, interpretation, or manuscript preparation. All other authors declare that no competing interests exist.