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Wednesday, October 9, 1996
The Journal of the American Medical Association put out the following press release.
Science News Press Release for
the week of October 9, 1996
SMOKING LINKED TO LOSS OF VISION
Cigarette smoking appears to contribute to age-related macular degeneration
CHICAGO--There appears to be yet another good reason to stay
away from cigarettes. Smokers are at greater risk of losing their vision to the condition known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to two articles in this week's
edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Johanna M. Seddon, M.D., Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Mass., and colleagues studied 31,843
women who were between 50 and 59 years old in 1980. All were registered nurses taking part in the Nurses Health Study. They were followed for 12 years, and information on their
smoking habits was updated every two years.
The researchers found women who were current and past smokers had a significantly greater risk of AMD than women who had never
smoked.
The researchers write: "Results of this study provide prospective evidence that smoking increases the risk of developing AMD. Compared with women who never smoked,
those who were smoking 25 or more cigarettes per day had 2.4 times the risk of AMD, after adjustment for several other potential risk factors for AMD. The risk of AMD associated with
smoking 25 or more cigarettes per day in the past was also increased two-fold." Compared with current smokers, little reduction in risk was suggested even after quitting smoking
for 15 or more years.
In another study, William G. Christen, Sc.D., and colleagues from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School followed 21,157 male physicians
enrolled in the Physicians Health Study. The men were aged 40 to 84 when they entered the study in 1982, and did not have a diagnosis of AMD at baseline.
The researchers found
those who smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day had an increased risk of developing AMD. There was also an increased risk for past smokers, but not as great.
The
researchers write: "Cigarette smokers of one pack or more of cigarettes daily had a two- to three-fold increased risk of AMD with vision loss compared with never smokers."
Both teams of researchers controlled for other factors -- including poor diet, and the presence of cataract. AMD is responsible for an estimated 1.7 million cases of visual
impairment in the U.S., and is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in individuals 65 years of age and older, according to information cited in the study.
Editorial: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Too
In an accompanying editorial in
this week's JAMA, Ronald Klein, M.D., M.P.H., and Barbara E. K. Klein, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, write that AMD is the latest entry on the
growing list of smoking-related conditions.
They conclude:
"The accumulated evidence adds yet another reason for not smoking cigarettes, namely, the possibility of developing an untreatable
condition that causes blindness, age-related macular degeneration. The information is sufficient so that physicians may be willing to go a bit beyond the data to suggest that not
smoking may reduce the loss of vision and may ensure a brighter view of the world for years to come."
Copyright 1995 American Medical Association. All rights reserved
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