Cataract, glaucoma and season of birth amongst patients born on the Indian subcontinent.

The relation between the prevalence of open-angle glaucoma and of different types of cataract on the one hand and the patient's season of birth on the other was studied with special reference to natives of the Indian Subcontinent. Partial comparisons were made with results obtained on British-born patients. Both primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and the mixed nuclear/posterior-subcapsular type (NP) showed a statistically significant variation with the month of birth for the Asian patients, but only NP showed significant variation for the European patients in a month-by-month analysis. The Asian data are examined from the point of view of seasonal variations in maternal nutrition and of low birth-weight babies.