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Age-specific maculopathy prevalence similar in European, Western populations

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An estimated 2.5 million Europeans may have age-related macular degeneration, based on extrapolations from a population-based study.

Additionally, the study found that more than 1.1 million Europeans may have bilateral AMD. This correlates with results from other Western population studies, the authors said.

To estimate the prevalence of maculopathy, Cristina A. Augood, MD, and colleagues with the European Eye Study (EUREYE) group studied data from 4,753 participants who had gradable fundus images. Participants were residents of Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain or the United Kingdom. Participants were at least 65 years old at baseline. There were 2,625 women in this portion of the study.

The prevalence for grade 0 maculopathy was 47.6%; for grade 1, 36.5%; for grade 2, 10.1%; for grade 3, 2.5%; and for grade 4, 3.3%. The prevalence for large drusen only was 15.4%, of geographic atrophic AMD, 1.2%; and of neovascular AMD, 2.3%. The prevalence of bilateral AMD was 1.4%.

Results show there was a slightly lower prevalence of grade 0 maculopathy and a higher prevalence of grade 1 in the French group compared with the other centers. Overall, the prevalence of those with grade 2 was higher in men than women, and AMD was more prevalent in women than men.

Of the 158 cases of AMD, 49 had only geographic atrophy, with 26 of those being bilateral. Eight participants had geographic atrophy in one eye and neovascular AMD in the other, and 101 participants had neovascular AMD only, with 61 having unilateral occurrence.

“Based on the findings from EUREYE, we estimate that 3.3% of the European population 65 years and older have AMD in at least one eye,” the researchers said.

The study is published in the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.