Familial aggregation of hyperopia in an elderly population of siblings in Salisbury, Maryland.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether hyperopia aggregates in families in an older mixed-race population.


METHODS
Cross-sectional familial aggregation study using sibships.


METHODS
We recruited 759 subjects (mean age, 73.4 years) in 241 families through the population-based Salisbury Eye Evaluation study. Subjects underwent noncycloplegic refraction if best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was <or=20/40, had lensometry to measure their currently worn spectacles if BCVA was >20/40 with spectacles, or were considered to be plano (refraction of zero) if the BCVA was >20/40 without spectacles. Preoperative refraction from medical records was used for bilaterally pseudophakic subjects.


RESULTS
Utilizing hyperopia cutoffs from 1.00 to 2.50 diopters, age-, race-, and gender-adjusted odds ratios for hyperopia with an affected sibling ranged from 2.72 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.84-4.01) to 4.87 (95% CI, 2.54-9.30). The odds of hyperopia increased with age until 75 years, after which they remained relatively constant. Black men were significantly less likely to be hyperopic than white men, white women, or black women.


CONCLUSIONS
Hyperopia appears to be under strong genetic control in this older population.
Wojciechowski
Robert
R
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Congdon
Nathan
N
Bowie
Heidi
H
Munoz
Beatriz
B
Gilbert
Donna
D
West
Sheila
S
D000368:Aged; D044383:Black People; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006956:Hyperopia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D040582:Inheritance Patterns; D008297:Male; D008396:Maryland / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D035781:Siblings; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014792:Visual Acuity; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American