Outdoor activities can take a toll on your eye health, researchers warn. According to a study, spending a long time in outdoor activities can lead to exfoliation syndrome (XFS) in the eyes.
The condition XFS is related to cataract and glaucoma. Various research has shown that XFS develops due to climate factors. One study also found that aboriginal Australians who spend major part of their day outdoors are at risk of XFS.
Current research led by Dr. Louis R. Pasquale of Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, aimed to find out the connection between XFS and ultraviolet radiation (UVR). For the study, they analyzed data on 118 cases gathered from clinics in the United States. These details were compared with 108 people who acted as the control group.
The study also examined data from Israel that included 67 cases and 72 control participants. The information was on the participants' residence based on latitude measurements and the average amount of time they spent outdoors per week.
The findings revealed that XFS was associated with the participants' residential latitude. The team explained that for each degree of average residential latitude away from the equator, they observed an increased chance of XFS by 11 percent.
Moreover, researchers found that each hour spent outdoors during the summer per week, the risk of developing XFS increased by 4 percent averaged over a lifetime. For every one percent of the time where people wore sunglasses while outdoors, the odds of XFS decreased by two percent.
"This work provides evidence for a role of reflected UV rays in contributing to XFS. It by no means excludes other genetic and environmental mechanisms in XFS pathogenesis. If confirmed in other studies, there could be reason to consider more widespread use of UV-blocking eyewear in the prevention of XFS," the authors wrote in the study.
The study was published in JAMA Ophthalmology.
