CVD remains the major cause of death for dialysis patients. Dialysis patients have both traditional and nontraditional risk factors, including the retention of advanced glycation end products (AGE). Tissue AGE can be measured by skin autofluorescence (SAF) and are a reliable measurement of chronic exposure. Dietary intake of AGE may be lower in vegetarian patients than in non-vegetarian patients, so we determined whether vegetarian patients had lower SAF than non-vegetarian patients. We measured SAF in 332 adult haemodialysis patients using a UV technique in a standardised manner. Information about patients' demographic data, laboratory results and current medicinal prescriptions was collected retrospectively from the hospital's computerised database. The mean patient age was 65·2 (sd 15·1) years, 64 % were men, 42 % were diabetic, and 66 % were Caucasian. The mean SAF was 3·26 (sd 0·95) arbitrary units (AU), and SAF was lower in vegetarians as compared to non-vegetarians (2·71 (sd 0·6) v. 3·31 (sd 0·97) AU, P= 0·002). SAF was negatively correlated on both univariate (r − 0·17, P= 0·002) and multiple linear regression (β coefficient − 0·39, 95 % CI − 0·7, − 0·07, P= 0·019). SAF, a marker of tissue AGE deposition, was reduced in vegetarian haemodialysis patients after correction for known confounders, which suggests that a vegetarian diet may reduce exposure to preformed dietary AGE. Dietary manipulation could potentially reduce tissue AGE and SAF as well as CVD risk, but further prospective studies are warranted to confirm the present findings.