Overall Diet Quality and Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Abstract

Purpose: To examine overall diet quality in relation to advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Methods: This case-control study identified 437 advanced AMD patients and 259 unrelated controls using stereoscopic color fundus photographs. Participants were predominantly non-Hispanic White men and women from North Carolina and Tennessee. A 97-item Block food frequency questionnaire was used to gather diet information, and overall diet quality was measured using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI).

Results: Participants in the highest quartile of diet quality had significantly reduced odds of AMD according to the AHEI score (0.54, 95% confidence interval 0.30–0.99) and non-significantly reduced odds of AMD according to the HEI (0.75, 0.41–1.38). Odds of AMD were also 51% lower in the highest quartile of fish intake compared to the lowest quartile (odds ratio = 0.49, 0.26–0.90).

Conclusions: We found that advanced AMD was significantly related to overall diet quality. The AHEI score may be a useful instrument for assessing AMD risk due to diet, and it could potentially be improved by incorporating more specific information regarding micronutrient intake.

KEYWORDS:

• AHEI alternate healthy eating index
• AMD age-related macular degeneration
• HEI healthy eating index

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Erratum

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

William K. Scott and Silke Schmidt are co-senior authors. This study was supported by grant EY12118 from the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. It was also supported in part by a General Clinical Research Center award (RR 00095) to Vanderbilt University. We express our appreciation to all the participants and their relatives who generously participated in the study. We thank Kristen Hutchins, Dr. Monica de la Paz, Jennifer Caldwell, Ruth Domurath, Maureen Shaw, and Jason Galloway for participant ascertainment and data management. Drs. Scott and Schmidt had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Declaration of Interest: No conflicts of interest were declared. Information about support/funding received by the authors is included above.