Epidemiology

The global pooled prevalence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been estimated to be 8.7%, with a projected 196 million people experiencing AMD in 2020.[5]​ Of the global 33.6 million adults aged 50 years and older who were blind in 2020, 1.8 million had AMD.[6][7]​ The global prevalence of moderate or severe vision impairment due to AMD in 2020 was 6.3 million.[8]​​​ Due to population ageing, the number of patients with AMD is expected to increase annually.[5]​​

There is a higher annual global incidence of early AMD compared with late AMD (1.6% and 0.2%, respectively), in people aged 55 years and over.[9]​ The prevalence of early and late AMD in people aged 40 years and over in the US is estimated to be 11.6% and 0.9%, respectively.[10]​ Similarly, the prevalence of early or intermediate and late AMD in people aged 60 years and over in Europe is estimated to be 25.3% and 2.4%, respectively.[11]

AMD is more prevalent in Europe (18.3%) and North America (14.3%) than in Asia (6.9%).[5]​ Prevalence also differs by ethnicity. For example, the reported prevalence of AMD among people of European ancestry (12.3%) is greater than that in people of African ancestry (7.5%) and Asian ancestry (7.4%).[5]​ One systematic review and meta-analysis found that people of European ancestry have a higher prevalence of the geographic atrophy subtype (1.11%) than either people with African (0.14%), Asian (0.21%), or Hispanic (0.16%) ancestry, but found no difference in the prevalence of neovascular AMD between ethnicities.[5]

Prevalence of AMD increases with increasing age, with the prevalence increasing rapidly in people aged 75 years and over.[5][11]​ Some studies report that AMD is more frequently diagnosed in women, although other studies report no difference between sexes.[5][9][11][12]​ Reported differences between sexes in some studies may be related to differences in life expectancy.[13]

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