Prevalence Of Age Related Macular Degeneration In Rural Central India. The Central India Eyes and Medical Study

1. Vinay Nangia¹
2. Jost B Jonas^{1, 2}
3. Maithili Kulkarni¹
4. Arshia Matin¹

¹Suraj Eye Institute, Nagpur, India.
¹Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany

Purpose: It was the purose of this study to evaluate the prevalence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in the adult population of rural Central India for which data are not available.

Methods: The population-based Central India Eye and Medical Study was performed in rural Central India and included 4711 subjects (aged 30+ years). The response rate was 80.1%. AMD was defined by the International classification of the Wisconsin Age-Related Maculopathy Grading system.

Results. Fundus photographs were available for 4542 (96.4%) subjects. In subjects aged 40 or more years, 50 or more years and 60 or more years, prevalence of early AMD was 6.1±0.4% (95% confidence intervals (CI):5.3-6.9), 8.2±0.6% (95%CI:7.0-9.4), and 8.3±0.8% (95%CI:6.8-9.9), respectively. Prevalence of late AMD was 0.2±0.8% (95%CI: 0.1-0.4) and 0.6±0.2% (95%CI:0.2-1.0), resp. The prevalence of early AMD increased from 1.3±0.3% per subject in the 30 to 40-year age group, to 3.6±0.5% in the 41 to 50-years old group, to 7.9±0.9% in the 51 to 60-years old group, to 10.0±1.1% in the 61 to 70-years old group, to 8.3±0.2% in the 71 to 80-years old group, and to 8.0±5.5% in the 81+ year old subjects. AMD was causative for visual impairment (best corrected visual acuity in the better eye: <20/60 and ≥20/400) in three out of 342 (0.9%) subjects, and it was causative for blindness (visual acuity <20/400) in none out of 17 subjects.

Conclusions. After age adjustment, age-related macular degeneration was found less frequently in the adult population of rural Central India than in European populations.