HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by O'Connell, E. D Articles by Beatty, S. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by O'Connell, E. D Articles by Beatty, S. Agricola Articles by O'Connell, E. D Articles by Beatty, S.

Diet and risk factors for age-related maculopathy^1,2,3

¹ From the Macular Pigment Research Group, Department of Chemical and Life Sciences (EDOC, JMN, SB, and LAM) and Department of Physical and Quantitative Sciences (JS), Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland; the Department of Ophthalmology, Waterford Regional Hospital, Waterford, Ireland (EDOC and SB); the Department of Anatomy, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland (EDOC); the MRC Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge, United Kingdom (DG); the Scottish Collaborative Group, Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland (JK)

Background: Evidence continues to accumulate that oxidative stress is etiologically important in the pathogenesis of age-related maculopathy (ARM) and that appropriate antioxidants of dietary origin may protect against this condition.

Objective: Risk factors for ARM may be classed as established or putative. We report a study designed to investigate whether such risk factors are associated with a dietary lack of antioxidants relevant to retinal health.

Design: Dietary, anthropometric, and sociodemographic details relating to 828 healthy Irish subjects aged 20–60 y were recorded in a cross-sectional fashion and analyzed for associations between risk factors for ARM and dietary intake of relevant nutrients.

Results: Of the established risk factors for ARM, increasing age was associated with a relative lack of dietary zeaxanthin (P < 0.05) and tobacco use with a relative lack of dietary vitamin C (P < 0.05). Of the putative risk factors for ARM, alcohol consumption was associated with a relative lack of dietary -linoleic acid (P < 0.05), and female sex was associated with a relative lack of dietary zinc (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: We showed that several variables related to risk for ARM are associated with a relative dietary lack of key nutrients. Our finding that age, the most important and universal risk factor for ARM, is associated with a relative lack of dietary zeaxanthin, is an important finding that warrants further investigation.

Key Words: Age-related macular degeneration • age-related maculopathy • antioxidants • lutein • n–3 fatty acids • zeaxanthin