This study was conducted to examine whether intake ofomega-3 fatty acid has any affect on the incidence of age-related maculardegeneration (AMD) in women.
38,022 womencompleted the food-frequency questionnaire and were not having AMD.
Outcome measure: Incident AMD responsible for areduction in best corrected visual acuity to 20/30 or worse based onself-report confirmed by medical record review.
10 years
A total of 235 cases of AMD, most characterized by somecombination of drusen and retinal pigment epithelial changes, were confirmedduring an average of 10 years of follow-up.
Women in the highest tertile of DHA intake, compared to the lowest, had a 38% lower risk of AMD (RR, 0.62; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.45-0.85; p, test for trend, 0.003).
Based on the study outcomes, the following observations were made:
Infant but not maternal red blood cell (RBC) phospholipid DHA increased significantly in the high DHA group.
High-DHA group had a significant increase in duration of gestation of 6.0 ± 2.3 days compared with the ordinary DHA group (276.5 days vs. 270.5 days, p=0.009).
Infants in the DHA supplemented group were significantly longer at delivery (p=0.048) and had a trend toward larger head circumference (p=0.081).
Duration of gestation increased significantly when docosahexaenoic acid intake was increased during the last trimester of pregnancy.
The increase in gestation was similar to that of previously reported interventions with much larger amounts of n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids
Smuts CM, Huang M, Mundy D et al. A randomized trial of docosahexaenoic acid supplementation during the third trimester of pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol. 2003;101(3):469-479..
