Age related macular degeneration: Smoking entails major risk of  blindness

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7404.1458-c

BMJ 2003;326:1458-1459 (28 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7404.1458-c

Letter

Age related macular degeneration

Smoking entails major risk of blindness

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Chopdar et al's review of age related macular degeneration was timely,¹ but they paid insufficient attentionto the association between smoking and age related maculardegeneration.

Pooled results from three large population based cross sectionalstudies found an odds ratio for all types of age related maculardegeneration of 3.12 (95% confidence interval 2.10 to 4.64)for current smokers compared with never smokers.² This increasedrisk was present for both atrophic age related macular degeneration and neovascular age related macular degeneration (odds ratios2.54 (1.25 to 5.17) and 4.55 (2.74 to 7.54), respectively).Former smokers had only a slightly increased risk of age relatedmacular degeneration compared with never smokers (odds ratio1.36 (0.97 to 1.90)), which implies that stopping smoking maybe an effective preventive approach.

Longer follow up further confirms the link between smoking andage related macular degeneration.^{3
4} The Australian Blue Mountains eye study also . . . [Full text of this article]

C Simon P Kelly, consultant ophthalmic surgeon

Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust, Bolton BL4 OJR Simon.Kelly@boltonh-tr.nwest.nhs.uk

Richard Edwards, senior lecturer in public health medicine

Evidence for Population Health Unit, School of Epidemiology and Health Sciences, The Medical School, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT

Peter Elton, director of public health

Bury Primary Care NHS Trust, Bury BL9 0EN

Paul Mitchell, professor of clinical ophthalmology

University of Sydney, Department of Ophthalmology Centre for Vision Research, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia