This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Aging/ Geriatrics  • Macular Degeneration  • Public Health  • Substance Abuse/ Alcoholism  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

The Rotterdam Study

Sharmila S. Boekhoorn, MD, PhD; Johannes R. Vingerling, MD, PhD; Albert Hofman, MD, PhD; Paulus T. V. M. de Jong, MD, PhD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2008;126(6):834-839.

Objective  To investigate the possible relationship between overall or specific alcohol consumption and risk of aging macula disorder (AMD), a synonym for age-related macular degeneration, in a general population.

Methods  Alcohol consumption and risk of early or late incident AMD (iAMD) were examined among all participants in the prospective population-based Rotterdam Study, with complete data on alcohol consumption among 4229 subjects at risk of AMD. Aging macula disorder was graded according to the International Classification and Grading System for AMD by 2 trained professionals who were masked for all other determinants. We used Cox proportional hazards regression models to estimate hazard ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals.

Results  During a mean follow-up period of 8.0 years, 600 cases of iAMD were identified, of which 519 were early iAMD and 81 were late iAMD. After correction for age, sex, smoking, complement factor H genotype status, and other potential confounders, we did not find an association between overall or specific alcohol consumption and development of early iAMD or dry or wet late iAMD.

Conclusion  Our findings suggest that overall or specific alcohol consumption is not a risk factor for AMD.

Author Affiliations: Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Drs Boekhoorn, Vingerling, Hofman, and de Jong) and Ophthalmology (Dr Vingerling), Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, and Department of Ophthalmology, Academic Medical Center, and Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam (Dr de Jong).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?