Prevalence of Age-Related Macular Degeneration in an Elderly Urban Chinese Population in China: The Jiangning Eye Study

PURPOSE. To describe the prevalence of AMD in an elderly urban Chinese population in China. METHODS. A population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted using a cluster random sample of residents aged 50 years or older living in the Jiangning Road Subdistrict, Jing'an District, Shanghai, China. All participants underwent a standardized interview and comprehensive eye examinations, including digital retinal photography and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) examinations of both eyes between November 2012 and February 2013. Trained graders assessed the presence and severity of AMD lesions based on a modified version of the Wisconsin Age-Related Maculopathy Grading System. RESULTS. Of the 2044 subjects who participated (82.5% response rate), 2005 had fundus photographs and OCT results of sufficient quality for grading of AMD signs. Early and late AMD were present in 206 (10.3%) and 23 (1.1%) participants, respectively. After age standardization, the prevalence of early AMD in Chinese persons aged 50 years or older was 9.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 8.2-10.8) and that of late AMD was 1.0% (95% CI, 0.51.5). CONCLUSIONS. The prevalence of early and late AMD in this urban Chinese sample was higher than that reported in the Beijing and Handan studies. Age-related macular degeneration is highly prevalent among the elderly urban Chinese population in mainland China.