Pigmentation of the eye and hair in relation to age-related macular degeneration. An epidemiological study of 1000 aged individuals.

So far, no epidemiological studies have dealt with the relationship between dark and light pigmented Caucasians and the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Based upon hospital referred eye patients, dark ocular pigmentation has previously been suggested as a protective factor. The present study reviews macular degeneration, defined as macular changes implicating a vision of 6/9 or less, in prevalence rates in relation to ocular pigmentation and hair colour in an ethnic homogeneous and random population of 1000 Danes, 60-80 years of age. The population was predominantly light pigmented. Brown iris colour was only present in 15.9%, dark pigmented fundi in 19.0% and a black juvenile hair colour supposed in 6.5%. The prevalence rates of AMD ranged from 16.0 to 10.5% for brown respectively blue iris colour, and from 13.3% to 9.0% for dark respectively light pigmented fundi. The presented data indicate that no significant differences in prevalence rates of AMD seem to exist between dark and light ocular pigmented Danes. An additional comparison between 100 AMD patients referred to hospital and the epidemiological sample did not reveal a difference in pigmentation. The prevalence analysis also showed that neither is juvenile hair colour of prognostic value in terms of later occurrence of AMD nor seems greyness of hair to be an independent indicator of AMD, but related to age as is AMD, when simultaneously entered into a logistic regression model.