[Epidemiology of the age-related macular degeneration].
The age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of severe decrease of the visual acuity in industrial countries. The epidemiological data published in last 30 years are very alarming. They document that the age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness in industrial countries in the population of patients older than 65 years. The signs of beginning disease may be diagnosed as early as in the patients older than 45 years. The disease is strictly age-related and its prevalence and incidence is markedly increasing according to the older age. The basic risk factors of the disease are smoking, untreated hypertension, atherosclerosis, cataract surgery, and appearance of the disease in the family. Among further possible risk factors we count diabetes mellitus and the light color of the iris. Equivocal is the negative influence of ultraviolet rays.
Ocní klinika Lékarské fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a Fakultní nemocnice, Brno. pkolar@fnbrno.cz
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D000368:Aged; D001766:Blindness / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence