Risk Factors for Age-Related Macular Degeneration in an Elderly Japanese Population: The Hatoyama Study

PURPOSE. To estimate the risk factors of AMD in an elderly Japanese population from a suburban area north of metropolitan Tokyo. METHODS. The Hatoyama Cohort Study was launched in 2010, and 742 persons participated in the baseline study. Among these participants, 596 persons who attended the 2-year follow-up examinations in 2012 were evaluated, and the presence of early and late AMD was determined via grading of their fundus photographs. Based on the cohorts' data, logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the risk factors for AMD. The possible risk factors that we examined were age, sex, medical history of systemic disorders, smoking, inflammatory markers at baseline, and the complement factor H (CFH) I62V and age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 (ARMS2) A69S variants. RESULTS. We assessed 480 participants (40.0% women) who had gradable fundus photographs. The prevalence of early AMD was 37.9% and the prevalence of late AMD was 0.6%. Mantel-Haenszel analysis revealed that the CFH I62V and ARMS2 A69S variants were significantly associated with the prevalence of AMD (P = 0.029 and 0.025, respectively). CONCLUSIONS. The CFH I62V and ARMS2 A69S variants were significantly associated with the prevalence of AMD.