Role of Educational Exposure in the Association Between Myopia and Birth Order.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Visual impairment due to myopia is an important public health issue. A prior analysis of population-based cohorts aged 15 to 22 years recruited from the United Kingdom and Israel suggested myopia and high myopia were approximately 10% more common in first-born compared with later-born children.

Objective

To examine whether myopia was associated with birth order in an earlier generation than studied previously and, if so, whether the association was attenuated after adjusting for education exposure, as predicted by the hypothesis that the education of children with later birth orders is less intense.

Design, setting, and participants

Cross-sectional study of UK Biobank participants recruited from 2006 to 2010. Analysis was restricted to participants aged 40

SUBMITTER: Guggenheim JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4681114 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature