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Study: caffeine not a culprit in early age-related maculopathy
Beaver Dam Eye Study records disassociate caffeine from early age-related maculopathy.
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MADISON, Wis. – Neither a history of coffee nor caffeine consumption is associated with an increased incidence of age-related maculopathy, according to a study by Ronald Klein, MD, and colleagues at the Department of Visual Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The study was originally reported in a recent issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
The prospective cohort study conducted from 1988 to 1995, with an average follow-up of 4.8 years, examined the relationship between coffee and caffeine consumption and the 5-year incidence of early age-related maculopathy and its component lesions, soft indistinct drusen or pigmentary abnormalities.
“Age-related maculopathy is associated with visual loss and occurs after a lifetime of exposure to potentially causative agents, some of which represent chosen behaviors,” Dr. Klein reported.
Positive associations have been made between cigarette smoking and early- and late-stage age-related maculopathy. Despite reports of caffeine’s vasoconstricting effect “as manifested by a 13% reduction in the mean velocity of white blood cells in the retinal capillary circulation of the macula,” Dr. Klein reported that to his knowledge there were no data relating caffeine exposure to age-related maculopathy.
Lotfi and Grunwald hypothesized that these alterations in blood flow may have a role in the pathogenesis of age-related maculopathy, according to Dr. Klein. Dr. Klein and colleagues took this a step further and hypothesized that caffeine may be associated with early age-related maculopathy through a possible vasoconstrictive effect on the retinal and choroidal circulation.
Methods
A cohort of 3,684 caffeine users between the ages of 43 and 84 was isolated from participants in the Beaver Dam Eye Study. Data from the participants at both baseline and at 5-year follow-up form the basis of Dr. Klein’s report. The Wisconsin Age-Related Maculopathy Grading System was used to assess the presence and severity of lesions associated with age-related maculopathy. Incidence of early age-related maculopathy was defined by the presence of either soft indistinct drusen or of any type of drusen associated with retinal pigment epithelial depigmentation or increased retinal pigmentation at follow-up when none of the lesions were present at baseline.
Coffee intake was defined by the number of cups of coffee ingested per day and the overall frequency of consumption. The milligrams of caffeine consumed per day were converted into their coffee equivalent.
Results and outcomes
Prospective review showed that the younger participants were more likely to be heavy coffee drinkers — defined as five or more cups per day — than their older counterparts. As age increased, the proportion of non-coffee drinkers also increased, according to Dr. Klein’s report. Men were more apt to classify themselves as current or past coffee drinkers than were women. Men and women of various age groups were examined separately in further analyses, because coffee and caffeine consumption differed by gender and age, Dr. Klein explained.
Ultimately, no statistically significant associations were found between coffee or caffeine consumption and incidence of early age-related maculopathy, soft indistinct drusen or pigmentary abnormalities, according to Dr. Klein’s findings.
“Our data show that coffee or overall caffeine intake is not associated with the incidence of early age-related maculopathy or any of its defining lesions in the Beaver Dam population,” Dr. Klein reported.
For Your Information:
- Ronald Klein, MD, can be reached at the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 610 N. Walnut Street, 460 WARF, Madison, WI 53705-2397; (608) 263-7758; fax: (608) 263-0279; e-mail: klein@epi.ophth.wisc.edu.
References:
- Tomany SC, Klein R, Klein BEK. The relation of coffee and caffeine to the 5-year incidence of early age-related maculopathy: The Beaver Dam Eye Study. Am J Ophthalmol. 2000;132:271-273.
- Lotfi K, Grunwald JE. The effect of caffeine on the human macular circulation. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1999;32:3028-3032.