Study reveals children with amblyopia are at higher risk of serious disease in adulthood

The neurodevelopmental condition affects up to four in 100 children

A new study led by researchers at University College London (UCL) and other collaborators has revealed that adults who experienced amblyopia as children are more likely to experience serious diseases in adulthood.

Published in eClinicalMedicine, the study was funded by the Medical Research Council, the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Ulverscroft Foundation.

Affecting up to four in 100 children, amblyopia, otherwise known as a ‘lazy eye,’ is a neurodevelopmental condition where the vision in one eye does not develop properly, caused by a breakdown in how the brain and eye work together.

Carried out alongside seven other collaborators, including King’s College London, the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and Great Ormond Street Hospital, researchers analysed more than 126,000 people aged 40 to 69 years from the UK Biobank cohort who had an ocular examination.

Out of 3,238 patients who reported having amblyopia in childhood, 82.2% were found to have had persistently reduced vision in one eye as adults.

In addition, the findings showed that patients with childhood amblyopia had 29% higher odds of developing diabetes, a 25% increased risk of having hypertension and a 16% higher risk of having obesity, as well as an increased risk of heart attack.

Professor Jugnoo Rahi from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: “It is rare to have a ‘marker’ in childhood that is associated with increased risk of serious disease in adult life, and also one that is measured and known for every child – because of population screening.”

“Our research means that the ‘average’ adult who had amblyopia as a child is more likely to develop these disorders than the ‘average’ adult who did not have amblyopia,” said UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital’s Dr Siegfried Wagner.

Researchers hope the results of the study will help to reinforce and highlight how child health lays the foundations for adult health.