Exploiting Nutrition on Delay Cataract

描述(申请人提供)：白内障，或晶状体混浊，是视力残疾的主要原因。白内障摘除是最常见的手术，白内障相关问题的费用占医疗保险预算中最大的一项。将白内障推迟10年将使白内障摘除手术的数量减半，每年节省超过10亿美元。研究表明，营养可能被用来减少或延缓老年性白内障的发病率或进展。然而，关于饮食的主要成分(抗氧化剂除外)与白内障流行或进展风险之间的关系的流行病学研究很少。这一知识对于了解高危或早期晶状体混浊的人是否可以从适当的饮食管理中受益是很重要的。这份NEI R03提案来自营养与视力项目(NVP)--塔夫茨大学与哈佛大学和哈佛医学院护士健康研究(NHS)的合作项目--利用独特的现有眼科和营养数据库，评估了关于营养对患病率和混浊进展的影响程度的三个以前未经检验的假设。NVP眼科数据集包括两组相隔五年收集的分级镜片图像，来自NHS的451名女性(年龄53-73岁)。英国国民健康保险制度的数据集包括来自5份食物频率问卷的长期营养数据，以及大量关于其他个人和环境因素的数据，所有这些数据都是在基线眼科检查之前的15年内收集的。结合这些数据，这些数据将被用来检验三个假设：a)摄入较高水平的特定脂肪(单不饱和、多不饱和和饱和饮食脂肪，n-3脂肪酸等)的人患白内障的风险较低；b)食用升糖指数较低的食物；以及c)根据特定的饮食模式进食。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cataract, or opacification of the lens, is a major cause of visual disability. Cataract extraction is the most frequently performed surgery and costs for cataract-related problems account for the largest line item in the Medicare budget. Delaying cataract by 10 years would halve the number of cataract extractions and save over $1 billion annually. Studies suggest that nutrition may be exploited to diminish the prevalence of or retard the progress of age-related cataract. However, there is little epidemiologic research regarding relations between major components of diet (other than for antioxidants) and risk for prevalence or progress of cataract. This knowledge is important in order to know if people at high risk or with early lens opacities might benefit from proper dietary management. This NEI R03 proposal from the Nutrition and Vision Project (NVP) - a collaboration between Tufts University and the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School - exploits unique existing ophthalmologic and nutritional databases to assess three previously untested hypotheses about the extent to which nutrition affects risk for prevalence and progress of opacification. The NVP ophthalmologic data set includes two sets of graded lens images, gathered five years apart, from 451 women (ages 53-73 y) who are a subset of the NHS. The NHS data set includes long-term nutritional data from 5 food frequency questionnaires and a plethora of data on other personal and environmental factors, all gathered during a 15-year period before the baseline eye exam. Combined, these data will be used to test three hypotheses: that risk for cataract is lower in persons who a) consume higher levels of specific fats (monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated dietary fats, n-3 fatty acids, etc.), b) consume lower glycemic index foods, and c) eat according to particular dietary patterns.