Ophthalmology
Volume 116, Issue 12 , Pages 2386-2392, December 2009

Low-Dose Aspirin and Medical Record–Confirmed Age-related Macular Degeneration in a Randomized Trial of Women

  • William G. Christen, ScD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence: William G. Christen, ScD, 900 Commonwealth Avenue East, Boston, MA 02215-1204
    • ,
  • Robert J. Glynn, ScD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
    • Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
    • ,
  • Emily Y. Chew, MD

      Affiliations

    • National Eye Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
    • ,
  • Julie E. Buring, ScD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
    • Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Received 17 December 2008; received in revised form 22 May 2009; accepted 22 May 2009. published online 07 October 2009.

Objective

To test whether alternate-day low-dose aspirin affects 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 healthy female health professionals aged 45 years or older.

Intervention

Participants were assigned randomly to receive either 100 mg aspirin on alternate days or placebo and were followed up for the presence of AMD for an average of 10 years.

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 111 cases of AMD in the aspirin group and 134 cases in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.64–1.06).

Conclusions

In a large-scale randomized trial of female health professionals with 10 years of treatment and follow-up, low-dose aspirin had no large beneficial or harmful effect on risk of AMD.

Financial Disclosure(s)

The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.

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 Available online: October 7, 2009.

 Manuscript no. 2008-1509.

 Financial Disclosure(s): The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.

 Supported by the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland (grant nos.: CA47988, HL43851, and EY06633). Pills and packaging were provided by Bayer Healthcare and the Natural Source Vitamin E Association.

PII: S0161-6420(09)00550-8

doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2009.05.031

Ophthalmology
Volume 116, Issue 12 , Pages 2386-2392, December 2009

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