Vitamin E supplementation and macular degeneration: randomised controlled trial

Study answer

What this study found

Daily vitamin E did not prevent age-related macular degeneration or slow its progression. Four-year incidence of early AMD was 8.6% with vitamin E versus 8.1% with placebo (relative risk 1.05, 95% confidence interval 0.69 to 1.61), and late AMD incidence was 0.8% versus 0.6% (1.36, 0.67 to 2.77). Progression outcomes were also null or slightly worse with vitamin E, including side-by-side progression (RR 1.26, 1.01 to 1.57). Adverse events were broadly similar between groups, including capsule-related events in 15% versus 14% and ophthalmic adverse events in 18% versus 15%.

Study & population

Randomized controlled trial in healthy volunteers aged 55 to 80 years recruited at an urban study centre at Monash University.

Intervention

Participants in the active arm received 500 IU daily of natural vitamin E (335 mg d-tocopherol) as an oral capsule in soybean oil suspension with gelatin for 4 years.

Key limitation

Single-centre study in generally healthy older adults, which limits generalizability to broader AMD populations.

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Original abstract