Five-year incidence of age-related maculopathy: The Visual Impairment Project

Purpose To describe the 5-year incidence of age-related maculopathy (ARM) and the progression of the early stages of ARM lesions in Melbourne, Australia. Design Population-based cohort study. Participants A total of 3271 participants aged 40 years and older from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Main outcome measures The 5-year incidence and progression of ARM lesions. Methods Participants were recruited through a cluster random sampling from 9 urban clusters. Baseline examinations were conducted from 1992 through 1994, and the follow-up data were collected from 1997 through 1999. Presence of ARM lesions was graded from color stereo fundus photographs according to the International Classification and Grading System. Results The overall cumulative 5-year incidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) was 0.49% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.2-0.8) and that of early ARM was 17.3% (95% CI, 8.7-26.0). The incidence of all ARM lesions increased with age (all P<0.001). The 5-year incidence of AMD was 0%, 0.69%, 1.7%, and 6.3% and that of early ARM was 13%, 22.7%, 29.8%, and 20% for participants aged 60 years and younger, aged 60 to 69 years, aged 70 to 79 years, and aged 80 years and older at baseline, respectively. People with soft indistinct drusen with pigmentary abnormalities had a 9.5 times (95% CI, 1.9-45.6) higher risk of developing AMD compared with people with soft drusen or pigmentary abnormalities. After adjusting for age, people with unilateral early ARM at baseline were 3 times (95% CI, 0.98-8.0) as likely to have early ARM in their second eye when compared with people with no ARM in both eyes. Conclusions These data suggest that 1 in 3 persons aged 70 years or older will have ARM lesions over a 5-year period and that the disease will progress to a more severe form after the age of 80 years. The presence of soft indistinct drusen with pigmentary abnormalities significantly increased the risk for development of AMD.