The epidemiology of retinal reticular drusen.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the prevalence and 15-year cumulative incidence of and risk factors for reticular drusen.


METHODS
Population-based prospective study.


METHODS
Four thousand nine hundred and twenty-six persons, 43 to 86 years of age, were included between 1988 and 1990, of whom 3,684, 2,764, and 2,119 participated in five-, 10-, and 15-year follow-up examinations, respectively, in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Main outcome measures included prevalence and 15-year incidence of reticular drusen determined by grading stereoscopic color fundus photographs.


RESULTS
The prevalence at baseline and the 15-year cumulative incidence in either eye of reticular drusen was 0.7% and 3.0%, respectively. The 15-year incidence of reticular drusen varied with age from 0.4% in those 43 to 54 years of age to 6.6% in those 75 years or older at baseline (P < .001). In a multivariate model, while controlling for age, risk factors statistically significantly associated with increased risk of incident reticular drusen included: being female (odds ratio [OR], 2.8), current smoking (OR vs never, 1.9), less education (OR per category, 1.7), B-vitamin complex use (OR vs none, 2.5), single vitamin B (OR vs none, 2.9), history of steroid eye drops use (OR, 5.9), glaucoma (OR, 2.8), and more severe drusen type (e.g., soft indistinct drusen; OR, 1.4), whereas diabetes (OR, 0.1) at baseline was associated with decreased risk. Right eyes with reticular drusen at baseline had higher cumulative incidence of geographic atrophy (21% vs 9%) and exudative age-related macular degeneration [AMD] (20% vs 10%) compared with eyes with soft indistinct drusen.


CONCLUSIONS
This population-based study documents the long-term cumulative incidence of reticular drusen and its risk factors and shows its association with a high risk of incident late AMD.
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 610 North Walnut Street, Madison, WI 53726, USA. kleinr@epi.ophth.wisc.edu
Ronald
R
Klein
Stacy M
SM
Meuer
Michael D
MD
Knudtson
Sudha K
SK
Iyengar
Barbara E K
BE
Klein
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015593:Retinal Drusen / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015996:Survival Rate; D014922:Wisconsin / Q000453:epidemiology