Abstract
Purpose :
Higher adherence to Mediterranean diet (MeDi) is linked to a lower risk of mortality, of several chronic diseases, and has been recently inversely associated with retinal diseases such as AMD or diabetic retinopathy. However, knowledge of the potential associations of the MeDi with ocular health remains limited. In the present study, we examined the association of adherence to the MeDi with the prevalence of visual impairment (VI) in the French CONSTANCES population-based cohort.
Methods :
CONSTANCES is an ongoing representative sample of French adults aged 18–69 years at inception, randomly selected among the National Health Insurance Fund database. A total of 200 000 subjects are expected to be included over a five year period (2012-2018). Our analyses were performed on 41 481 participants with complete ophthalmic, dietary, medical, and, sociodemographic and lifestyle data, included in 2012-2015.
Visual acuity was assessed using the Snellen scale, according to a standard operating procedure, by trained personnel in each Health Screening Center (HSC).
Dietary data were collected from food frequency questionnaire and sociodemographic and lifestyle data from a standardized self-reported questionnaire. Medical data were recorded by a medical doctor during an examination at the HSC.
VI was defined as a presenting visual acuity <20/40 at the better eye. A MeDi score assessing adherence to the MeDi (range 0-9) was constructed according to the method developed by Trichopoulou, using high intakes of vegetables, fruits, legumes, cereals, fish, and olive oil, low intakes of meats and dairy products and moderate alcohol consumption.
Multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess associations between the MeDi score and VI.
Results :
In the studied sample, the prevalence of visual impairment was 0.6%. A higher MeDi score (6-9) was significantly associated with a reduced risk of VI after adjusting for age and gender (OR=0.60 95%CI: 0.42-0.85, p-trend=0.005). After adjustment for body mass index, education, income, smoking status, diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia this association remained significant (OR=0.69 95%CI: 0.48-1.00, p-trend=0.045).
Conclusions :
Higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with a 30% reduced risk of VI among French adults. These results highlight that eating a healthy diet, such as a Mediterranean-type diet, may help to preserve an optimal ocular health.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.