A large Chinese and Australian study found middle-aged and older UK individuals with hyperopia, independent of genetic predisposition, had an increased risk of clinically significant depression (CSD).
The data of almost 95,000 participants aged 40-69 years from the UK Biobank showed hyperopes were more likely to be older, female, of white ethnicity, less educated, with lower Townsend scores, current or former smokers, experience visual impairment and have a history of diabetes, compared with emmetropes. After adjusting for these factors and others, including family history of severe depression and physical activity levels, hyperopia was independently associated with a 29% higher risk of incident depression. No significant association between myopia and incident CSD was found.
The authors, including Centre for Eye Research Australia’s Gabriella Bulloch and led by Professor Honghua Yu, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, concluded, “These findings suggest the importance of hyperopia correction for the early prevention of depression among the middle-aged and elders, however, further studies are necessary to elucidate the underlying mechanisms for our findings.”
