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. 2022 Jul 8;14(14):2821.
doi: 10.3390/nu14142821.

B Vitamins and Incidence of Advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration: The Alienor Study

Bénédicte M J Merle  1 , Stéphanie Barthes  1 , Catherine Féart  1 , Audrey Cougnard-Grégoire  1 , Jean-François Korobelnik  1   2 , Marie-Bénédicte Rougier  2 , Marie-Noëlle Delyfer  1   2 , Cécile Delcourt  1
Affiliations

B Vitamins and Incidence of Advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration: The Alienor Study

Bénédicte M J Merle et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

B vitamins may protect against age-related macular degeneration (AMD). We evaluated the associations of dietary intake and serum vitamins with the incidence of advanced AMD in the Alienor study. The Alienor study is a prospective population-based cohort of 963 residents of Bordeaux, France, who were 73 years or older at baseline (2006-2008). Examinations were performed every two years over an eight-year period. The incidence of AMD is based on retinal fundus photographs and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography examinations. Among the 861 included participants, 93 developed incident AMD during a median follow-up time of 9.8 years. Participants with normal serum folate (≥10 nmol/L) significantly had a 51% reduced risk for AMD in the fully adjusted Cox model (HR, 0.49 [95% CI, 0.25-0.95], p = 0.036). Participants with a higher dietary intake of B5 and B6 vitamins had a lower risk for developing AMD of up to 28% (HR, 0.72 for 1-SD increase [0.53-0.99], p = 0.049; HR, 0.90 [0.81-0.99], p = 0.049, respectively). This cohort study of older adults suggests a strong association between a normal serum folate status, a high dietary intake of B5 and B6 and a lower risk for developing advanced AMD. Adopting a healthy diet rich in B vitamins may help to reduce vision loss due to AMD.

Keywords: age-related macular degeneration; cohort; epidemiology; folate; nutrition; population; risk; vitamins B.

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Conflict of interest statement

Bénédicte Merle: Travel fees from Thea Pharma. Stéphanie Barthès: none. Audrey Cougnard-Gregoire: Travel fees from Laboratoires Théa. Catherine Féart: consultant for Laboratoire Lescuyer and Synadiet, travel fees from Nutricia Research. Marie-Noëlle Delyfer: consultant for Allergan, Horus Pharma, Bayer, Laboratoires Théa, Novartis. Cécile Delcourt: consultant for Allergan, Bausch + Lomb, Laboratoires Théa, Novartis. Jean-François Korobelnik: consultant for Allergan, Bayer, Baush&Lomb, Beaver Visitec, Horus, Krys, Kanghong, NanoRetina, Novartis, Novonordisk, Oxurion, Roche, Thea. The funders had no role; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Association between serum folate and incidence of advanced AMD adjusted for age, sex, smoking status, HDL-cholesterol, genetic risk score, oral supplementation for AMD, body mass index and physical activity. Data from the Alienor Study 2001–2017 (n = 654). Serum folate was modeled using p-spline with 4 degrees of freedom in the Cox model. HR: hazard ratio.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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