by Norra MacReady – April 16, 2016

Some cloudy news for people who work outdoors: long hours in the sun may increase the risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Compared with little or no time spent working in the sun, past but not current sun exposure showed a dose-related increase in the risk for early and late AMD among retirees, researchers report in an article published in the April issue of Retina.

“Sunlight exposure at younger age has an influence on the development of a severe eye disease…decades later,” write Tina Schick, MD, from the Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital of Cologne, Germany, and colleagues. “The results also demonstrate that the predisposing events for the disease take place many years before morphological signs become apparent.”

The researchers studied 3701 people participating in the European Genetic Database (EUGENDA). In addition to standard demographic data and smoking history, the authors collected information on occupation type, iris color, and current and past (preretirement) sun exposure: either less than 8 hours daily or 8 or more hours daily. People who rarely went outside served as the reference group.

The authors used fundus photographs to stage the AMD. They defined early AMD as the presence of 10 or more small drusen and pigmentary changes, or intermediate or large drusen on the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study grid; they defined late AMD as AMD with subfoveal geographic atrophy and/or choroidal neovascularization in at least one eye.

Recommendations: Start early in life wearing sunglasses and brimmed hats.