Adherence to a Mediterranean diet may lower odds of neovascular AMD

A diet high in fish or omega-3 fatty acids can be protective against age-related macular degeneration, so those who adhered to a Mediterranean diet had lower odds of developing the disease, according to study.

Researchers included 5,060 randomly sampled people ages 65 years and older from seven study centers in Europe — United Kingdom, Estonia, Norway, France, Italy, Greece and Spain — in a cross-sectional, population-based epidemiologic study. All participants underwent an eye examination and digital retinal photography, and their dietary intake in the previous year was assessed using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire to determine their Mediterranean diet score.

Full dietary information was available for 4,753 participants; of those, 109 had neovascular AMD, 2,333 had early AMD, 2,262 did not have signs of AMD, and 49 had geographic atrophy. Six hundred forty-one participants had large drusen.

Higher Mediterranean diet scores were associated with lower odds of developing wet AMD. Compared with participants who had lower scores, those with high scores showed significantly lower odds of wet AMD (P = .01).

“This study provides further evidence of the relationship between the Mediterranean diet and the prevalence of AMD. The [Mediterranean diet score] provides a useful method to characterize dietary patterns across geographically and culturally diverse populations. Interventions to encourage the adoption of the Mediterranean diet should be developed more widely, and methods by which such behavior change can be achieved and maintained over the long term should be investigated,” the study authors wrote.

Disclosures: Hogg reports she receives grants from Novartis. Please see the study for a list of all authors’ relevant financial disclosures.

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Hogg RE, et al. Ophthalmology. 2016;doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2016.09.019.