Kids with common condition ‘at greater risk of 4 silent killers including heart attack’

CHILDREN with a lazy eye are at greater risk of four deadly conditions including heart attacks in adulthood, a study shows.

Kids with the condition — known medically as amblyopia — were 29 per cent more likely to have diabetes and a quarter more at risk of high blood pressure when they were older.

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They were also 16 per cent more likely to be obese.

Researchers looked at data from 126,000 Brits aged 40 to 69 who had their eyes tested when they were younger.

Professor Jugnoo Rahi, of Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: “Amblyopia is an eye condition affecting up to four in 100 children. 

“In the UK, all children are supposed to have vision screening before the age of five, to ensure a prompt diagnosis and relevant ophthalmic treatment.

“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.

“The large numbers of affected children and their families may want to think of our findings as an extra incentive for trying to achieve healthy lifestyles from childhood.”

Around 2 to 5 per cent of Brits have amblyopia, when vision in one eye does not develop properly.

It does not always cause symptoms and is often first diagnosed during an eye test.

Signs can include shutting on eye or squinting when looking at things, eyes pointing in different directions and not being able to follow an object or person with your eyes.

Tilting your head when looking at something, having tired eyes and rubbing your eyes a lot, headaches and difficulty catching or throwing are also symptoms.

The study, published in eClinicalMedicine, looked at whether having the condition in childhood affected health in later years.

Researchers asked the adults whether they were treated for amblyopia in childhood and whether they still had the condition in adulthood. 

They were also asked if they had a medical diagnosis of diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease.

Some 3,238 had a lazy eye as a child, with 82.2 per cent of them having continued problems with vision in one eye as an adult.

The increased risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack and obesity was found in those whose lazy eyes persisted.

Those who only had a lazy eye in childhood also had a higher risk, although the links were not as strong.

But the researchers said that while they found a link between lazy eyes and poor health in older age, it does not prove they cause it.

Dr Siegfried Wagner, of Moorfields Eye Hospital, said: “Vision and the eyes are sentinels for overall health — whether heart disease or metabolic disfunction, they are intimately linked with other organ systems. 

“This is one of the reasons why we screen for good vision in both eyes.

“We emphasise that our research does not show a causal relationship between amblyopia and ill health in adulthood. 

“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. 

“The findings don’t mean that every child with amblyopia will inevitably develop cardiometabolic disorders in adult life.”