Associations between fruits, vegetables, vitamin A, β-carotene and flavonol dietary intake, and age-related macular degeneration in elderly women in Korea: the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the principal causes of blindness. This study investigated the association between diet and the prevalence of AMD in elderly Korean women.

SUBJECTS/METHODS: Study subjects were women aged ⩾65 years (n=1008) from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010-2012). The presence of early- and late-onset AMD was determined on the basis of a fundus photograph from a health examination survey. Food intake was estimated using 24 h recall.

RESULTS: The prevalence of AMD was 18.8% in elderly women in Korea. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed a significant negative association between vegetable intake and AMD (odds ratio (OR) 0.44, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.25, 0.77, P for trend=0.002) after adjusting for age, body mass index, postmenopausal period, duration of hormone replacement therapy, residential area, education level, family income, smoking status, alcohol consumption, dietary supplement use and total energy intake. After adjusting for potential confounders, the ORs between extreme quartiles were 0.55 (95% CI 0.29, 1.05, P for trend=0.070) for fruit and vegetable intake, 0.38 (95% CI 0.21, 0.68, P for trend=0.001) for vitamin A, 0.36 (95% CI 0.19, 0.67, P for trend<0.001) for β-carotene and 0.45 (95% CI 0.25, 0.82, P for trend=0.008) for flavonols.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that higher consumption of fruits and vegetables containing antioxidant nutrients and phytochemicals may provide some protection against AMD.