Outside temperatures, sun exposure, gender may trigger exfoliation syndrome

Age, gender, and location influence a patient's risk of developing exfoliation syndrome (ES), which leads to an increased risk for cataract and cataract surgery complications and is a leading cause of secondary open-angle glaucoma. "Although many studies from around the world have reported on the burden of the disease, some aspects of the basic descriptive epidemiologic features, which may help shed light on the cause, are inconsistent," said Louis Pasquale, M.D., study co-author, and director, Glaucoma Center of Excellence, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, in a press release. "In this study we found that women are more vulnerable to this disease than men, that ES is not a disease of Norwegian descent, and that where you live does matter when it comes to developing the disease."
"Importantly, those with a lifetime residential history of living in the middle tier and south tier of the United States was associated with 47% and 75% reduced risks, respectively, compared with living in the northern tier, and across the life span, residence at age 15 was the most strongly associated with risk, followed by current residence," the authors wrote.
Researchers also found that iris color did not seem to be a risk factor, but a positive family history of glaucoma was associated with a more than doubling of risk.
"This large prospective cohort study demonstrates that there is a positive association between latitude and ES risk that is robust and not related to demographic features or other systemic covariates," Dr. Pasquale explained. "Another manuscript we published recently suggests that lower ambient temperature interacts with increased solar exposure to increase the risk of ES. This new work demonstrates a relation between increasing latitude and a condition with a strong predisposition to glaucoma. More work is needed to determine how environmental factors conspire to contribute to ES."