“Analysis of Macular Pigment Optical Density in Childhood: A Systematic Review”

ABSTRACT

Purpose

This systematic review studies the relationship between Macular Pigment Optical Density (MPOD) values and cognitive and visual function in childhood.

Methods

It included cross-sectional, observational studies or controlled clinical trials in humans between 0 and 18 years of age, analyzing MPOD values in 3 main databases: PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. The study was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement recommendations.

Results

Thirteen studies were included in this systematic review. The relationship of cognitive function, visual function and diverse variables with MPOD was analyzed in 4, 4 and 5 studies, respectively. The age of the participants ranged between premature infants to 12 years. Most of the studies used Heterochromatic Flicker Photometry (HFP) with macular densitometer to obtain MPOD values. MPOD values ranged between 0 (undetectable) to 0.66 ± 0.03 d.u. Only 4 articles studied the relationship between MPOD values and dietary intake of lutein and zeaxanthin using questionnaires about diet.

Conclusions

Lutein and zeaxanthin accumulation plays an important role during the maturational stage and childhood development. Although cognitive function is more strongly correlated with MPOD values, the relationship with visual function remains unclear, and further studies are required to support this relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood
• cognitive function
• macular pigment optical density
• premature infant
• visual function

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the support offered by the members of the Department of Physics of Condensed Matter, Faculty of Physics, University of Seville. In addition, the authors also appreciate the technical support offered by the members and facilities of the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Seville.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Conceptualization, literature research, data collection and analysis were performed by Victor Ponce-Garcia, María-José Bautista-Llamas and Marta-C García-Romera. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Victor Ponce-Garcia and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.