Purpose-To provide a perspective of observed associations between lifestyle exposures and eye diseases in adults.
Design-Summary of recent epidemiologic studies.Methods-Non-systematic review of the literature.Results-Data suggest that some lifestyle exposures (e.g., smoking) are significantly associated with risk of several different diseases, suggesting that altering behaviors may decrease risk. Where risk is inherent to an occupational or recreational activity, eye protection is likely to decrease risk.Conclusions-Although data are imperfect, it seems that some lifestyle alterations may decrease the risk of eye diseases at little or not risk to the individual.
Keywordsepidemiology; lifestyle; risk factors; age-related macular degeneration; cataract; diabetic retinopathy Lifestyle exposures or behaviors have been linked to many human illnesses. Examples are wide ranging from the observation of the association of lung cancer with smoking to food-borne parasitic infection due to ingesting raw or partially cooked shellfish containing parasites (e.g., paragonimus metacercariae). Other examples are common in chronic and infectious disease epidemiology. The best way to establish the efficacy of a preventive (or causative) exposure for a disease outcome, whether a drug, device, or behavior (lifestyle), is to evaluate the effect in a well-designed randomized, masked, controlled clinical trial. However this is often not feasible when examining the relationship of lifestyle exposures with disease, where observational studies may be the only methodology available. Even though observational studies may add important information on the effectiveness of interventions in the community, investigators involved in such studies must be aware of self-selection and confounding inherent in such studies and should attempt to investigate and adjust for these (e.g., by calculating a propensity score).Assessing relationships from observational data is complicated by varying exposure 'doses' over the previous life course and by interacting lifestyle exposures (omitting the ever complicating genetic factors). In addition, documentation of the exposures usually depends almost entirely on self report. This may be complicated by inaccurate memory, by deliberate Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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Author ManuscriptAm J Ophthalmol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2008 December 1.
NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript over or under estimation of the exposure under investigation, and by non-random exposure. Nevertheless, import...