Intelligent people are 30% more likely to have poor eyesight genes, according to a report in The Guardian.
The largest study of its kind was carried out by the University of Edinburgh, in which researchers analysed cognitive and genetic data from more than 300,000 people aged between 16 and 102 gathered by the UK Biobank and the Charge and Cogent consortia.
The Charge and Cogent participants undertook tasks that tested at least three different cognitive domains and UK Biobank participants were asked 13 multiple choice questions that assessed verbal and numerical reasoning, and were scored on how many questions were answered correctly in two minutes.
The findings showed that there was a ‘significant genetic overlap between general cognitive function, reaction time, and many health variables including eyesight, hypertension, and longevity’, suggesting that those who are more intelligent are more likely to have genes which might indicate they’d need to wear glasses.
The study was published in the journal Nature.