No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Background: Weather conditions are a possible contributing factor to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of irreversible loss of vision. The present study evaluated the joint effects of meteorological factors and fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) on AMD. Methods: Data was extracted from a national cross-sectional survey conducted across 10 provinces in rural China. A total of 36,081 participants aged 40 and older were recruited. AMD was diagnosed clinically by slit-lamp ophthalmoscopy, fundus photography, and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT). Meteorological data were calculated by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis and were matched to participants' home addresses by latitude and longitude. Participants' individual PM 2.5 exposure concentrations were calculated by a satellite-based model at a 1-km resolution level. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models paired with interaction analysis were performed to investigate the joint effects of meteorological factors and PM 2.5 on AMD. Results: The prevalence of AMD in the study population was 2.6% (95% CI 2.42-2.76%). The average annual PM 2.5 level during the study period was 63.1 « 15.3 µg/m 3 . A significant positive association was detected between AMD and PM 2.5 level, temperature (T), and relative humidity (RH), in both the independent and the combined effect models. For PM 2.5 , compared with the lowest quartile, the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) across increasing quartiles were 0.