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Alcohol, smoking linked to increased risk of early AMD in older women
Am J Ophthalmol. 2010;149(1):160-169.
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Alcohol consumption was significantly associated with increased risk of incident early age-related macular degeneration in older women after adjusting for confounding factors, a study found.
In addition, the study found that female subjects aged 80 years or older who smoked had a higher risk of early AMD than subjects who were younger than 80 years and did not smoke.
"The magnitude of the greater-than-additive effect of smoking on the age-adjusted risk of AMD reinforces recommendations to quit smoking even for older individuals," the study authors said.
The prospective cohort study looked at 1,958 women in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures who had 10 years and 15 years of follow-up. Of those patients, 245 were black and 1,713 were white. The mean age was 78.2 years at the 10-year follow-up visit.
Subjects had 45° stereoscopic fundus photographs taken at each follow-up visit. Photographs were graded for AMD, and logistic regression measured risk factors associated with incident AMD.
The study found that overall 5-year incidence was 24.1% for early AMD and 5.7% for late AMD.