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Age-related Macular Degeneration
Cause data is not available for people with mild vision impairment.
(Opens in a new window) Also, there is limited information on the causes of vision impairment and blindness for people under 50 years of age.More standardisation and certainty of the causes of vision impairment and blindness would be beneficial in future research.
Age-related Macular Degeneration: Global summary
The age-standardised prevalence of blindness due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) declined by almost 30% from 1990 to 2020, which was likely associated with the widespread clinical introduction of anti-VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) therapy for exudative AMD.
Since most patients with AMD show the currently untreatable non-exudative form that can progress to atrophy of the foveal centre (geographic atrophy), the development of treatments and prophylactic measures specifically against non-exudative AMD are required.
As an example, the prevalence of blindness and vision loss due to AMD and disease burden increased significantly in China from 1990 to 2019, especially for women and middle-aged and elderly population (Zhang et al., 2021).
It’s important to also note that for every person that experiences vision impairment and blindness from AMD, there are many more living with early stage AMD who need comprehensive and integrated people centred eye care services to prevent vision loss.
References
- Adelson, J., Bourne, R., Briant, P., Flaxman, S., Taylor, H., Jonas, J., Abdoli, A., Abrha, W., Abualhasan, A., Abu-Gharbieh, E. and Adal, T. (2020). Causes of blindness and vision impairment in 2020 and trends over 30 years, and prevalence of avoidable blindness in relation to VISION 2020: the Right to Sight: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet Global Health.
- Zhou, M., Duan, P.C., Liang, J.H., Zhang, X.F. and Pan, C.W., 2021. Geographic distributions of age-related macular degeneration incidence: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Ophthalmology, 105(10), pp.1427-1434.
Learn more about age-related macular degeneration
(Opens in a new window) Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a disease affecting the central area of the retina (macula) at the back of the eye. It causes a gradual deterioration of the macula, usually over many years, as the retinal cells die off and are not regenerated.Find out more at this link.