Elsevier

The Journal of Nutrition

Volume 139, Issue 9, September 2009, Pages 1692-1699
The Journal of Nutrition

Women’s Health Initiative Diet Intervention Did Not Increase Macular Pigment Optical Density in an Ancillary Study of a Subsample of the Women’s Health Initiative1,2

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Abstract

In this study, we examined the impact of long-term (>8 y), low-fat, high-fruit and -vegetable diets on levels of lutein and zeaxanthin in the macula of the retina, as indicated by the OD of macular pigment. Macular pigment OD, measured by heterochromatic flicker photometry, was compared in women aged 60–87 y, who, 7–18 mo earlier (median 12 mo), had been in the dietary modification intervention (n = 158) or comparison (n = 236) groups of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) at the Madison, WI site for a mean of 8.5 y. Women in the intervention group ate more fruits and vegetables (mean ± SEM) (6.1 ± 0.2 vs. 4.6 ± 0.2 servings/d; P < 0.0001) and had higher intakes of lutein and zeaxanthin from foods and supplements (2.7 ± 0.2 vs. 2.1 ± 0.1 mg/d; P = 0.0003) than the comparison group. However, macular pigment density did not differ between the intervention (0.36 ± 0.02 OD units) and comparison (0.35 ± 0.01 OD units) groups. It tended to be higher (11%; P = 0.11) in women consuming lutein and zeaxanthin in the highest compared with the lowest quintile (median 6.4 vs. 1.1 mg/d). The increase in fruit and vegetable intake among dietary modification participants of this WHI subsample was not of sufficient magnitude to alter the mean density of retinal carotenoids, given other existing dietary conditions in this sample.

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1

Supported by the Prevent Blindness America Investigator Award, The Karl and Mildred Reeves Foundation, The Retinal Research Foundation, The Research to Prevent Blindness, and a grant from the University of Wisconsin Medical School. This research was an ancillary study of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). We thank the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which funded the WHI program.

2

Author disclosures: S. M. Moeller, R. Voland, G. E. Sarto, V. L. Gobel, S. L. Streicher, and J. A. Mares, no conflicts of interest.

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Present address: Department of Medicine and Public Health, American Medical Association, Chicago, IL.