Prospective study of intake of fruits, vegetables, vitamins, and carotenoids and risk of age-related maculopathy.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the intake of antioxidant vitamins and carotenoids as well as fruits and vegetables in relation to the development of age-related maculopathy (ARM).


METHODS
We conducted a prospective follow-up study of women in the Nurses' Health Study and men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. We followed 77 562 women and 40 866 men who were at least 50 years of age and had no diagnosis of ARM or cancer at baseline for up to 18 years for women and up to 12 years for men. Fruit and vegetable intakes were assessed with a validated semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire up to 5 times for women and up to 3 times for men during follow-up.


RESULTS
A total of 464 (329 women and 135 men) incident cases of early ARM and 316 (217 women and 99men) cases of neovascular ARM, all with visual loss of 20/30 or worse due primarily to ARM, were diagnosed during follow-up. Fruit intake was inversely associated with the risk of neovascular ARM. Participants who consumed 3 or more servings per day of fruits had a pooled multivariate relative risk of 0.64 (95% confidence interval, 0.44-0.93; P value for trend =.004) compared with those who consumed less than 1.5 servings per day. The results were similar in women and men. However, intakes of vegetables, antioxidant vitamins, or carotenoids were not strongly related to either early or neovascular ARM.


CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest a protective role for fruit intake on the risk of neovascular ARM.
Cho
Eunyoung
E
Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA. eunyoung.cho@channing.harvard.edu
Seddon
Johanna M
JM
Rosner
Bernard
B
Willett
Walter C
WC
Hankinson
Susan E
SE
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000975:Antioxidants; D002338:Carotenoids; D004032:Diet; D015930:Diet Records; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005638:Fruit; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014675:Vegetables; D014815:Vitamins
D000975:Antioxidants; D014815:Vitamins; D002338:Carotenoids