Positive Health Online

Abstract

WU and COLLEAGUES, 1. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: juan.wu@mail.harvard.edu  2. Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Dermatology, the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; Department of Epidemiology, Brown School of Public Health, Providence, Rhode Island; 3. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; 4. Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; 5. Bethesda Retina, Bethesda, Maryland; 6. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Global Medical Affairs, Ophthalmics, Shire, Lexington, Massachusetts; Center for Translational Medicine, John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah conducted a prospective cohort study with 75,889 women from the Nurses’ Health Study and 38,961 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study over 28 and 24 years respectively to determine the associations between intakes of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and the intermediate and advanced stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Background

To evaluate the associations between intakes of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and the intermediate and advanced stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Methodology

Design: Prospective cohort study. Participants: We followed 75, 889 women from the Nurses' Health Study and 38,961 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study who were at least 50 years old, from 1984 to 2012 and 1986 to 2010, respectively. Cohort participants are mostly white (≥95%). Methods: We assessed dietary intake by a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) at baseline and every 4 years. We calculated cumulative average intakes of EPA and DHA from FFQs and also computed predicted erythrocyte and plasma scores directly from food intake using regression models. Cox proportional hazards models were used to compute the associations with AMD outcomes. Main Outcome Measures: We confirmed 1589 incident intermediate and 1356 advanced AMD cases (primarily neovascular AMD) with a visual acuity of 20/30 or worse, owing primarily to AMD, by medical record review.

Results

For intermediate AMD, the pooled hazard ratio (HR) between the 2 cohorts for DHA comparing the extreme quintiles of intake was 0.78 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66-0.92; P trend, 0.008) and for EPA + DHA was 0.83 (95% CI, 0.71-0.98; P trend, 0.03). The pooled HR for fatty fish, comparing ≥5 servings per week to almost never, was 0.61 (95% CI, 0.46-0.81; P trend, <0.001). For advanced AMD, the pooled HR for DHA was 1.01 (95% CI, 0.84-1.21; P trend, 0.75) and for fatty fish was 0.80 (95% CI, 0.59-1.08; P trend, 0.11). Secondary analyses using predicted erythrocyte and plasma scores of EPA and DHA yielded slightly stronger inverse associations for intermediate AMD and similar results for advanced AMD.

Conclusion

Higher intakes of EPA and DHA may prevent or delay the occurrence of visually significant intermediate AMD. However, the totality of current evidence for EPA and DHA and advanced AMD is discordant, though there was no association with advanced AMD in the present study.

References

Wu J1, Cho E2, Giovannucci EL3, Rosner BA4, Sastry SM5, Willett WC3, Schaumberg DA6. Dietary Intakes of Eicosapentaenoic Acid and Docosahexaenoic Acid and Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Ophthalmology. 124(5):634-643. May 2017. DOI: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2016.12.033 . Epub Jan 30 2017.

Comment

The above research indicates that higher EPA and DHA intake may prevent or delay occurrence of intermediate AMD.