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Updated: Mar 13, 2026
Author Spotlight: Understanding Retinal Vessel Resilience and Disease Progression
Published on: January 12, 2024
Dietary glycemic index and retinal microvasculature in adults: a cross-sectional study
Natalia Sanchez-Aguadero1,2, Rosario Alonso-Dominguez3, Jose I Recio-Rodriguez4
1Primary Care Research Unit, The Alamedilla Health Center, Castilla and León Health Service (SACYL), Biomedical Research Institute of Salamanca (IBSAL), Spanish Network for Preventive Activities and Health Promotion (redIAPP), Salamanca, Spain. natalia.san.ag@gmail.com.
Objective:
To analyze the relationship between dietary glycemic index (GI) and retinal microvasculature in adults.
Methods:
This was a cross-sectional study of 300 subjects from the EVIDENT II study. Dietary GI was calculated using a validated, semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Retinal photographs were digitized, temporal vessels were measured in an area 0.5-1 disc diameter from the optic disc and arteriolar-venular index (AVI) was estimated with semi-automated software.
Results:
AVI showed a significant difference between the tertiles of GI, after adjusting for potential confounders. The lowest AVI values were observed among subjects in the highest tertile of GI, whereas the greatest were found among those in the lowest tertile (estimated marginal mean of 0.738 vs. 0.768, p = 0.014).
Conclusions:
In adults, high dietary GI implies lowering AVI values regardless of age, gender and other confounding variables.
Trial Registration:
Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: NCT02016014 . Registered 9 December 2013.
