FAMILIAL AGGREGATION OF LENS OPACITIES - THE FRAMINGHAM EYE STUDY ANDTHE FRAMINGHAM OFFSPRING EYE STUDY

Eye examination data from 1,086 parents examined in the Framingham Eye Study (1973-1975) and 896 offspring examined in the Framingham Offspr ing Eye Study (1989-1991) were used to study familial associations for nuclear, cortical, and posterior subcapsular lens opacities. Associat ions between spouses, between parents and offspring, and between sibli ngs were explored. The generalized estimating equations (GEE2) approac h to logistic regression was used to simultaneously model risk of lens opacity and familial associations. Specifically, this provided odds r atios, adjusted for age (the age range was 50-74 years) and sex, for t he familial associations. For any pair of siblings, the odds of nuclea r opacity for one sibling was estimated to more than triple if the oth er sibling had a nuclear opacity. Similar findings were noted for post erior subcapsular opacity. No significant associations were noted for any of the opacity types between spouses or between parents and offspr ing. The strong associations between siblings for nuclear and posterio r subcapsular opacities suggest there is clustering of lens opacities within families. The clustering may be due to genetic or environmental factors.