Associations of Mortality With Ocular Disorders and an Interventionof High-Dose Antioxidants and Zinc in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study

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Abstract
Various ocular disorders (eg, visual impairment and cataract and thosein persons with diabetes mellitus, severe retinopathy, or visual impairment)have been reported1-17 tobe significant predictors of a decreased life span, often even after extensiveadjustment for potential confounders. Cataract surgery has been associatedwith decreased survival in many1-5 butnot all6-8 studies.A common finding is the association between nuclear opacities, in particular,and decreased survival.6,7,9-11 Age-relatedmacular degeneration (AMD), on the other hand, has not been found to be relatedto decreased survival in the few studies6,8,9 thathave examined the relationship, although the ability to find an associationis limited because few participants in these studies had advanced disease(neovascular AMD or geographic atrophy).