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CIGARETTE SMOKING LINKED TO MACULAR DEGENERATION.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe visual impairment among elderly persons in the U.S., but little is known about its prevention, and treatment is rarely effective.

Two epidemiological analyses explored the relationship between cigarette smoking and AMD in two large cohorts: 61,862 women aged 50 to 59 years without a history of AMD or cancer enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study and 21,157 men without a history of AMD enrolled in the Physicians' Health Study.

There were 215 new diagnoses of AMD with vision loss in the Nurses' Health Study during a total of 556,338 person- years of follow-up. Analyses adjusted for other factors showed that women who smoked 25 or more cigarettes per day had a relative risk of AMD of 2.4 compared with nonsmokers. The risk for past smokers was also double that for nonsmokers.

Among the male physicians, 268 new cases of AMD with vision loss were diagnosed. Similar to the findings in women, multivariate analyses showed a relative risk of 2.5 for men who smoked 20 or more cigarettes per day. However, unlike in women, the relative risk for past smokers was only 1.3.

Comment: These data are consistent with theories that exposure to oxidants increases the risk of AMD. This disease should be added to the list of reasons not to smoke.

— TH Lee

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine October 18, 1996

Citation(s):

Seddon JM et al. A prospective study of cigarette smoking and age- related macular degeneration in women. JAMA 1996 Oct 9 276 1141-1146.

• Medline abstract (Free)

Christen WG et al. A prospective study of cigarette smoking and risk of age-related macular degeneration in men. JAMA 1996 Oct 9 276 1147-1151.

• Medline abstract (Free)