Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Rupal ShahORCiD
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
© 2023 The Authors.PURPOSE. The purpose of this study was to investigate if education contributes to the risk of myopia because educational activities typically occur indoors or because of other factors, such as prolonged near viewing. METHODS. This was a two-sample Mendelian randomization study. Participants were from the UK Biobank, Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, and Generation R. Genetic variants associated with years spent in education or time spent outdoors were used as instrumental variables. The main outcome measures were: (1) spherical equivalent refractive error attained by adulthood, and (2) risk of an early age-of-onset of spectacle wear (EAOSW), defined as an age-of-onset of 15 years or below. RESULTS. Time spent outdoors was found to have a small genetic component (heritability 9.8%) that tracked from childhood to adulthood. A polygenic score for time outdoors was associated with children’s time outdoors; a polygenic score for years spent in education was inversely associated with children’s time outdoors. Accounting for the relationship between time spent outdoors and myopia in a multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis reduced the size of the causal effect of more years in education on myopia to −0.17 diopters (D) per additional year of formal education (95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.32 to −0.01) compared with the estimate from a univariable Mendelian randomization analysis of −0.27 D per year (95% CI = −0.41 to −0.13). Comparable results were obtained for the outcome EAOSW. CONCLUSIONS. Accounting for the effects of time outdoors reduced the estimated causal effect of education on myopia by 40%. These results suggest about half of the relationship between education and myopia may be mediated by children not being outdoors during schooling.
Author(s): Clark R, Kneepkens SCM, Plotnikov D, Shah RL, Huang Y, L Tideman JW, Klaver CCW, Atan D, Williams C, Guggenheim JA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science
Year: 2023
Volume: 64
Issue: 38
Print publication date: 01/11/2023
Online publication date: 01/11/2023
Acceptance date: 02/04/2018
ISSN (print): 0146-0404
ISSN (electronic): 1552-5783
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.64.14.38
DOI: 10.1167/iovs.64.14.38
PubMed id: 38010695
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
