TY - JOUR
T1 - The relationship between birthweight and early age-related maculopathy
T2 - The atherosclerosis risk in communities study
AU - Liew, Gerald
AU - Wang, Jie Jin
AU - Klein, Ronald
AU - Duncan, Bruce B.
AU - Brancati, Frederick
AU - Yeh, Hsin Chieh
AU - Wong, Tien Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study is carried out as a collaborative study supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute contracts N01-HC-55015, N01-HC-55016, N01-HC-55018, N01-HC-55019, N01-HC-55020, N01-HC-55021, and N01-HC-55022. Additional support was provided by NHBLI grant R21-HL077166, the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Clinical Investigator Award and the Alcon Institute Research Award (TYW). B.B.D. received support from a Centers of Excellence Grant of CNPq (the Brazilian National Research Council). Dr. Brancati was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda , MD (K24DK62222). The authors thank the staff and participants of ARIC for their important contributions.
PY - 2008/1
Y1 - 2008/1
N2 - Purpose: Birthweight is a marker of fetal growth, and has been linked to future risk of chronic diseases in adults. We examined the association between birthweight and age-related maculopathy (ARM). Methods: We studied 9730 adults from the population-based Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, of whom 4744 reported their exact birthweight and an additional 4986 provided categorical birthweight data (low, medium or high). We graded retinal photographs for presence of ARM using a modification of the Wisconsin ARM Grading System. Results: Early ARM was present in 479 (4.9%) adults. Among persons with exact birthweight data, there was no association between birthweight and early ARM (OR 1.1, 95% CI 0.9-1.3, for each kg increase in birthweight). However, in Whites, greater birthweight was associated with an increased risk of early ARM (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.0-1.4, for each kilogram increase in birthweight), after adjustment for age, sex, smoking, blood pressure and education level. In analyses including additional participants who provided categorical birthweight data, the pattern of associations were similar but not statistically significant. We did not have sufficient numbers to examine associations for late ARM (n = 12) or in African-Americans separately. Conclusions: We found no association between birthweight and risk of early ARM in the whole population. Among the white participants, higher birthweight was associated with a slight increased risk of early ARM. These findings, if confirmed in other studies, suggest that fetal growth may be important in ARM development in white persons.
AB - Purpose: Birthweight is a marker of fetal growth, and has been linked to future risk of chronic diseases in adults. We examined the association between birthweight and age-related maculopathy (ARM). Methods: We studied 9730 adults from the population-based Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, of whom 4744 reported their exact birthweight and an additional 4986 provided categorical birthweight data (low, medium or high). We graded retinal photographs for presence of ARM using a modification of the Wisconsin ARM Grading System. Results: Early ARM was present in 479 (4.9%) adults. Among persons with exact birthweight data, there was no association between birthweight and early ARM (OR 1.1, 95% CI 0.9-1.3, for each kg increase in birthweight). However, in Whites, greater birthweight was associated with an increased risk of early ARM (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.0-1.4, for each kilogram increase in birthweight), after adjustment for age, sex, smoking, blood pressure and education level. In analyses including additional participants who provided categorical birthweight data, the pattern of associations were similar but not statistically significant. We did not have sufficient numbers to examine associations for late ARM (n = 12) or in African-Americans separately. Conclusions: We found no association between birthweight and risk of early ARM in the whole population. Among the white participants, higher birthweight was associated with a slight increased risk of early ARM. These findings, if confirmed in other studies, suggest that fetal growth may be important in ARM development in white persons.
KW - ARIC study
KW - Age-related macular degeneration
KW - Birthweight
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U2 - 10.1080/09286580701613769
DO - 10.1080/09286580701613769
M3 - Article
C2 - 18300090
AN - SCOPUS:39749132216
SN - 0928-6586
VL - 15
SP - 56
EP - 61
JO - Ophthalmic Epidemiology
JF - Ophthalmic Epidemiology
IS - 1
ER -