How many people in England and Wales are registered partially sighted or blind because of age-related macular degeneration?
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the study was to determine what proportion of new certifications between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008 could be attributed to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to describe the AMD-certified population in England and Wales.


METHODS
An electronic version of the Certificate of Vision Impairment form (CVI), the ECVI, was used at the certifications office to transfer information from the paper-based certificates into a database. The electronic certifications data set was queried for all certificates completed between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008 with the main cause of certifiable visual loss being AMD or with the main cause of certifiable visual loss being multiple pathology but a contributory cause being AMD. The electronic data set was adapted so that a distinction could be made between geographic atrophy (GA) and neovascular AMD (nAMD).


RESULTS
The Certifications Office received 23 185 CVIs between April 2007 and March 2008, of whom 9823 (42%) were people registered severely sight impaired (SSI) and 12 607 (52%) were certified as sight impaired (SI). AMD contributed to 13 000 causes of registration on the CVI forms during this period and was the main cause in 11 015 people. In these 11 015 people, GA accounted for 49.3%, nAMD 35.1%, and AMD not specified 15.7%.


CONCLUSIONS
The data in this report provide detailed information on CVI registration due to AMD before the widespread adoption of ranibizumab therapy in NHS practice and provide an insight into the burden of vision loss due to AMD at a time of great change in the management of nAMD.
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
A
A
Rees
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
A
A
Zekite
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
C
C
Bunce
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
P J
PJ
Patel
D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001766:Blindness / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002568:Certification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D057092:Geographic Atrophy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013222:State Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015354:Vision, Low / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014852:Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D057135:Wet Macular Degeneration / Q000453:epidemiology*