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Large study identifies prevalence, risk factors for AMD in Japanese population

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A new investigation of data from the Funagata Study has found that the prevalence of early age-related macular degeneration in a Japanese population is comparable to the prevalence of the disease reported among an Australian white population in the Blue Mountains Eye Study. In addition, these results identified older age and cigarette smoking as risk factors for late AMD in Japanese adults.

Ryo Kawasaki, MD, MPH, and colleagues evaluated the prevalence and risk factors for AMD using undilated fundus photographs obtained for 1,625 eyes of 1,625 participants in the Funagata Study who were aged 35 years or older. Subsequently, the researchers compared age-standardized prevalence rates of AMD with those from the Blue Mountains Eye Study.

The investigators identified a 3.5% prevalence of early AMD and a 0.5% prevalence of late AMD in the Funagata Study population.

The age-standardized prevalence of early AMD in right eyes was 4.1% in the Funagata cohort, which was comparable to the 4.4% prevalence in the Blue Mountains cohort, the authors noted.

The age-standardized prevalence of late AMD in right eyes of men was 1.1% in the Funagata cohort and 1.2% in the Blue Mountains cohort; however, the corresponding prevalence for late AMD in women was higher in the Blue Mountains cohort (2.1%) than in the Funagata cohort (0.3%), according to the study.

After adjusting for gender, older age was associated with both early and late AMD. In addition, after adjusting for age and gender, current smoking was associated with late AMD. This association was stronger in men than in women, according to the study, published in the August issue of Ophthalmology.