Foveal and Macular Thickness in a Japanese Population: The Hisayama Study

To examine factors associated with foveal thickness (FT) and macular thickness (MT) in Japanese persons from Hisayama.

A total of 2216 healthy eyes of 1384 participants were analyzed. Each participant underwent comprehensive physical and ophthalmic examinations, the latter including optical coherence tomography (OCT). Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship of various factors (race, age, sex, refractive error, axial length, diabetes mellitus, fasting plasma glucose levels, alcohol intake and smoking status) to FT (central 1-mm foveal area) and MT (central 3-mm foveal region).

Results of multiple linear regression analysis indicated that age was positively associated with FT (β coefficient 0.214 μm). FT was significantly smaller in women than men (β coefficient -9.146 μm). For both sexes, body height was positively correlated (β coefficient 0.257 μm), while refractive error and current smoking were negatively associated (β coefficients -1910 μm and -4.410 μm, respectively) with FT. With respect to MT, there were negative associations between age, sex (female), and refractive error (β coefficients -0.268 μm, -4.815 μm and -0.699 μm, respectively). For both sexes, body height was positively correlated (β coefficient 0.227 μm), while hypertension and current smoking were negatively associated (β coefficients -1.999 μm and -2.758 μm, respectively) with MT.

Our results indicated that age, body height, refractive error, and current smoking were significantly associated with FT, whereas age, body height, refractive error, current smoking, and hypertension were significantly related to MT. Women had significantly smaller FT and MT than men.