Iris color, skin sun sensitivity, and age-related maculopathy: The blue mountains eye study☆
Section snippets
Methods
The Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES) is a population-based survey of vision and eye disease in an urban population aged 49 years or older, resident in two postcode areas in the Blue Mountains region, west of Sydney, Australia. Details of the survey methods have been previously described.2, 15, 16 Of the 4433 eligible residents, 3654 (82.4%) were examined during 1992–1994. A questionnaire covering medical history was administered, and subjects underwent a detailed eye examination, including
Results
The distributions of iris, hair, and skin color, skin sun sensitivity, number of bad sunburns, and examiner-assessed skin damage in women and men are shown in Table 2. Associations between iris, hair, and skin color and each outcome: (1) late AMD, (2) neovascular AMD, (3) early ARM, and (4) large drusen are shown in Table 3. This analysis revealed a significantly reduced risk for both late AMD and early ARM for other iris colors combined compared with blue, with no particular iris color
Discussion
Iris color was associated with both late AMD and early ARM, with blue-eyed subjects at higher risk of having late AMD or early ARM than subjects with all other iris colors, either individually or combined. This result is consistent with findings by Hyman et al,3 Holz et al,5 and Weiter et al,4 although no significant iris color association was found in the other five studies examining this hypothesis. A biologically plausible explanation for the lower risk of ARM among subjects with nonblue
Conclusions
This study provides further evidence that blue iris color is associated with an increased risk for both early ARM and late AMD. However, recent observations regarding change in iris color during life5, 29 and ARM were not able to be tested. Skin sensitivity to sunlight was also found to be associated with an increased risk of late AMD but not with early ARM. No other markers of sunlight exposure, from the history or examination, were found to be associated with age-related maculopathy.
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Supported by the Australian Department of Health and Family Services and the Save Sight Institute, University of Sydney, Australia.