Do Gender, Age, Body Mass and Height Influence Eye Biometrical Properties in Young Adults? A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Do gender, age, body mass and height influence eye biometrical properties in young adults? Methods: A total of 155 eyes (92 female, 63 male) of healthy subjects between the ages of 18 and 39 years were included in the study. The subjects’ gender and age were recorded, and their body mass, height and biometrical properties of the eyes were measured. Results: The male subjects had significantly thicker and flatter corneas and lower minimal rim-to-disk ratios than the female subjects did. In both genders, age showed strong, negative correlations with anterior chamber depth and pupil diameter and a positive correlation with lens thickness. We also found significant, negative correlations between body height and mass with keratometry measurements, negative correlations between body height and optic disk rim area and rim volume, and positive correlations between body mass and axial length in both genders. Conclusions: Biometric eye parameters differ among people. In addition to age and gender, which are usually taken into consideration when interpreting ocular biometry findings, we strongly suggest that body height and mass should be also routinely considered when interpreting eye biometry data, as these factors have an impact on ocular biometry.

Axial length and anterior chamber indices in elderly population: Tehran Geriatric Eye Study

“…Several studies have evaluated the factors affecting AL, reporting age, sex, and education level as the most important determinants [6,[24][25] . Evaluation of the relationship between sex and AL in the present study showed that AL was longer in men versus women (23.43 vs 23.01), which is consistent with previous studies where the longer AL in men has been attributed to their taller stature as well as physical differences between men and women [26][27][28] . Evaluation of the role of age in AL changes showed a decrease in AL with age in the study population, which was consistent with the majority of the previous studies [14,18,24] .…”

Sex-Specific Differences in the Relationship Between Prematurity and Ocular Geometry

“…In a study examining 155 eyes, female adults had a thinner central corneal thickness, but the axial length, anterior chamber depth, lens thickness, and white-to-white distance were not significantly different between sexes. 17 Conversely, other studies have demonstrated that males tend to have larger morphometric eye parameters. In one study, sex-specific biometric differences in children were examined by analyzing 64 eyes of 64 adolescents from 32 sets of twins.…”

Sex differences in ocular biometric measurements: A twin study

“…For example, the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, rs1401999) in the ABCC5 gene contribute to being associated with both anterior chamber depth (ACD) ( 3 ), and rs4148568 might be associated with the axial length (AL), carriage of high-risk rs4148568 genetic variants is associated with making the AL longer in northern Chinese people ( 4 ). Additionally, ocular biometric measurements are associated with demographic, environmental, and lifestyle factors such as age, gender, and diet ( 5 , 6 ).…”