TABLE 1.

Characteristics¹ of CAREDS participants² by level of lutein and zeaxanthin in the diet at WHI Baseline (N=1,802)

	Lutein plus Zeaxanthin Intake Group2
Variable	Low	High
Number of participants in each group	919	883
Dietary lutein+zeaxanthin (μg/d) 3	791	28894, c
Median dietary lutein+zeaxanthin (mg/d)	0.8	2.6
Dietary lutein+zeaxanthin (mg/1000 kcal/d) 3	0.6	1.6 c
Median dietary lutein+zeaxanthin (mg/1000 kcal/d)	0.6	1.4
Demographics
Age Group (%)
≤69 y	52	47 a
70-74 y	24	24
≥75y	24	29 a
Ethnicity (% Caucasian)	98	97 a
Education (%)
High School	30	14 c
College	49	46
Post-College Studies	21	40 c
Income ≥ $ 75,000 per year (%)	13	21 c
Study site (%)
Iowa	37	30 b
Oregon	33	33
Wisconsin	30	37 b
Lifestyle
Smoking
Never	54	60 b
Past	42	37
Current	5	3 b
Physical activity (kcal/week/kg body weight)	12	18 c
Ocular Factors
Iris pigmentation (% blue)	45	39 b
History of cataract diagnosis (%)	48	47
Family history of cataract (% yes)	31	31
Refractive error	−0.62	−0.65
Nuclear Cataract Outcomes
Overall NuclearCataract (Either Nuclear Sclerosis Score ≥ 4 or Cataract Extraction (%))	43	38 a
Nuclear Sclerosis Score ≥ 4 (%)	31	27
Cataract extraction surgery (%)	20	17
Medical Factors
Body mass index (kg/m2)	28	27 b
History of hypertension (% yes)	29	26
History of cardiovascular disease (% yes)	25	24
History of diabetes	3	4
Cholesterol lowering medications (%)
Never	70	70
Past	4	5
Current	26	25
Hormone Replacement Therapy (%)
Never	34	33
Past	13	14
Current	53	53
Systolic BP (mm Hg)	127	127
Pulse Pressure (mm Hg)	53	53
General Health (%) (N=1798)
Excellent/Very Good	59	69 b
Good	34	26 b
Fair/Poor	7	4 b
Diet5
Total energy (kcal)	1316	1956 c
Total dietary fat (% kcal)	34	28 c
Saturated fat (% kcal)	12.0	9.6 c
Polyunsaturated fat (% kcal)	6.9	6.0 c
Trans fat intake, mg/d	3.4	4.0 c
Total omega-3 fatty acids, g/d	1.0	1.5 c
Dietary fiber, g/d	12	26 c
Alcohol intake (g/d)	4.1	5.5 b
Fruit intake (servings/d)	1.4	3.0 c
Vegetable intake (servings/d)	1.2	3.9 c
Beta-carotene, μg/d	2098	6994 c
Beta-cryptoxanthin, μg/d	83	182 c
Vitamin C, mg/d	74	165 c
Vitamin E, mg/d	6.3	10.4 c
Gamma-tocopherol (mg/d)	11.3	14.8 c
Zinc (mg/d)	8.5	13.7 c
Supplement Use
Non-users of any supplement (% non-users)	15	9 b
Among supplement users, % users of:
Multivitamins	42	49
Lutein or lutein + zeaxanthin	4.8	4.7
High dose antioxidants 6	28	35 b
High dose zinc 7	18	17
Serum (N=1777-1778)
Total Cholesterol (mmol/L)	5.8	5.8
Triglycerides (mmol/L)	1.9	1.7 b
Lutein (all-trans, μmol/L)	0.21	0.31 c
Zeaxanthin (trans, μmol/L)	0.054	0.064 c
Lutein+zeaxanthin (trans, μmol/L)	0.26	0.37 c
Median serum lutein+zeaxanthin (trans, μmol/L)	0.24	0.35
Alpha-tocopherol (μmol/L)	47	49 a
Gamma-tocopherol (μmol/L)	6.2	4.8 c

¹Data represent age-adjusted means or percentage of participants (directly standardized for age group (except for ‘Age-Group’): ≤69, 70-74, ≥75) unless otherwise indicated.

²Participants were selected for intake into CAREDS if their intake of lutein + zeaxanthin was “low” (<28th percentile) or high (>78th percentile) relative to other women at each site in the larger WHI-Observational Study at WHI Baseline.

³Means (not age-adjusted)

⁴The difference between categories was statistically significant: ^a p ≤ 0.05; ^b p ≤ 0.01; ^c p ≤ 0.0001

⁵Dietary intakes include food sources only

⁶Daily intake of at least 2 of the following 3 antioxidants from supplements containing ≥ 120 mg vitamin C, ≥ 60 IU (40 mg) vitamin E, or ≥ 10,000 μg beta-carotene at CAREDS baseline

⁷Daily intake of ≥ 15 mg supplemental zinc at CAREDS baseline