Vitamin E and age-related macular degeneration in a randomized trial of women.

OBJECTIVE

To test whether alternate day vitamin E affects the incidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a large-scale randomized trial of women.

DESIGN

Randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial.

PARTICIPANTS

Thirty-nine thousand eight hundred seventy-six apparently healthy female health professionals aged 45 years or older.

INTERVENTION

Participants were assigned randomly to receive either 600 IU of natural-source vitamin E on alternate days or placebo.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Incident AMD responsible for a reduction in best-corrected visual acuity to 20/30 or worse based on self-report confirmed by medical record review.

RESULTS

After 10 years of treatment and follow-up, there were 117 cases of AMD in the vitamin E group and 128 cases in the placebo group (relative risk, 0.93; 95% confidence interval, 0.72-1.19).

CONCLUSIONS

In a large-scale randomized trial of female health professionals, long-term alternate-day use of 600 IU of natural-source vitamin E had no large beneficial or harmful effect on risk of AMD.