Long-term nutrient intake and early age-related nuclear lens opacities

Objective: To assess the relation between usual nutrient intake and subsequ ently diagnosed age-related nuclear lens opacities. Subjects: Four hundred seventy-eight nondiabetic women aged 53 to 73 years from the Boston, Mass, area without previously diagnosed cataracts sampled from the Nurses ' Health Study cohort. Methods: Usual nutrient intake was calculated as the average intake from 5 food frequency questionnaires that were collected during a 13- to 15-year p eriod before the evaluation of lens opacities. The duration of vitamin supp lement use was determined from 7 questionnaires collected during this same period. We defined nuclear opacities as a nuclear opalescence grade of 2.5 or higher using the Lens Opacification Classification System III. Results: The prevalence of nuclear opacification was significantly lower in the highest nutrient intake quintile category relative to the lowest quint ile category for vitamin C (P < .001), vitamin E (P = .02), riboflavin (P = .005), folate (P < .009), beta -carotene (P = .04), and lutein/ zeaxanthin (P = .03). After adjustment for other nutrients, only vitamin C intake rem ained significantly associated (P = .003 for trend) with the prevalence of nuclear opacities. The prevalence of nuclear opacities was significantly lo wer (P < .001) in the highest vitamin C intake quintile category relative t o the lowest quintile category (odds ratio, 0.31; 95% confidence interval, 0.16-0.58). There were also statistically significant trends of decreasing prevalence of nuclear opacities with increasing duration of use of vitamin C (P = .004 for trend), vitamin E (P = .03 for trend), and multivitamin (P = .04 for trend) supplements, but only duration of vitamin C supplement use remained significantly associated with nuclear opacities after mutual adju stment for use of vitamin E (P = .05 for trend) or multivitamin (P = .02 fo r trend) supplements. The prevalence of nuclear opacities was significantly lower (P = .004) for women who used a vitamin C supplement for 10 or more pears relative to women who never used vitamin C supplements (odds ratio, 0 .36; 95% confidence interval, 0.18-0.72). Plasma measures of vitamins C and E taken at the eye examination were also inversely associated with the pre valence of nuclear opacities. Conclusion: These results provide additional evidence that antioxidant nutr ients play a role in the prevention of age-related nuclear lens opacities.