Strong link seen in smoking, age-related blindness

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who smoke are about four times more likely to develop a leading cause of severe vision loss known as age-related macular degeneration, Australian researchers reported on Monday.

Their study provides strong evidence of the link between cigarette smoking and a leading cause of vision loss in old age.

Researchers led by Jennifer Tan of the University of Sydney followed for 10 years 2,454 Australians who were at least age 49 at the study's outset.

Smokers were about four times more likely to develop the disease than people who never smoked, and developed it an average of five years earlier, according to the study published in the journal Archives of Ophthalmology.

Previous smokers were three times as likely to have an advanced form of the disease than people who never smoked, the study also found. "The risk from smoking seemed to persist above that of never smokers for a considerable time after quitting smoking," the researchers wrote.

The researchers asked the study participants about past and current smoking and their diet, and took retinal photos as well as weight and blood-pressure measurements.

Experts call cigarette smoking the most preventable cause of macular degeneration. It is a chronic disease that affects the central part of the retina of the eye, resulting in blurred central vision or a blind spot in the center of one's visual field.

Macular degeneration does not affect peripheral vision, but the loss of clear central vision can rob a person of the ability to read, drive and recognize people's faces even without causing total blindness.