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Paul F. Jacques, ScD; Allen Taylor, PhD; Suzen Moeller, PhD; Susan E. Hankinson, ScD; Gail Rogers, MA; William Tung, BS; José Ludovico, MD; Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH; Leo T. Chylack, Jr, MD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2005;123:517-526.

Objective  To determine if usual nutrient intake is related to a 5-year change in the amount of lens nuclear opacification assessed by computer-assisted image analysis.

Design  A sample of 408 Boston, Mass–area women from the Nurses’ Health Study aged 52 to 74 years at baseline participated in a 5-year study related to nutrition and vision. Usual nutrient intake was calculated as the average intake from 5 food frequency questionnaires that were collected over a 13- to 15-year period before the baseline evaluation of lens nuclear density. Duration of vitamin supplement use before baseline was determined from 7 questionnaires collected during this same period. We assessed the degree of nuclear density (opacification) using computer-assisted image analysis of digital lens images with amount of nuclear density measured as a function of average pixel gray scale, ranging from 0 (clear) to 255 (black).

Results  Median (range) baseline and follow-up nuclear densities were 44 (19 to 102) and 63 (32 to 213). The median (range) 5-year change in nuclear density was 18 (–29 to 134) and was positively correlated with the amount of opacification at baseline (Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.35; P<.001). Geometric mean 5-year change in nuclear density was inversely associated with the intake of riboflavin (P trend = .03) and thiamin (P trend = .04) and duration of vitamin E supplement use (P trend = .006).

Conclusion  Our results suggest that long-term use of vitamin E supplements and higher riboflavin and/or thiamin intake may reduce the progression of age-related lens opacification.

Author Affiliations: From the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (Drs Jacques, Taylor, and Moeller, and Ms Rogers), School of Nutrition Science and Policy (Drs Jacques and Taylor), Tufts University, Boston, Mass; Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison (Dr Moeller); The Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital (Drs Hankinson and Willett), Departments of Nutrition (Dr Willett) and Epidemiology (Drs Hankinson and Willett), Harvard School of Public Health, Center for Ophthalmic Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Mr Tung and Drs Ludovico and Chylack), and Harvard Medical School (Dr Chylack), Boston.

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