Five-year incidence of age-related maculopathy lesions: The blue mountains eye study☆
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Materials and methods
The Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES) is a population-based survey of vision and common eye diseases in an urban population aged 49 years or older, resident in two postcodes of the Blue Mountains region, west of Sydney, Australia. The survey methods and procedures have been previously described.2, 9 The Study was approved by the Western Sydney Area Health Service Human Ethics Committee and signed informed consent was obtained from all participants. A detailed questionnaire was administered and
Results
Before commencement of the BMES II during 1997 to 1999, 543 participants (14.9%) died and 383 (10.5%) had moved from the study area. There were 2335 BMES I participants (75.1% of survivors) who attended BMES II, whereas 393 (10.8%) refused to participate. Table 1 compares baseline characteristics of participants seen (n = 2335) and not seen (n = 776) in BMES II. The BMES I participants who moved from the area or who refused to participate in BMES II were more likely at baseline to be older
Discussion
The current report provides data on the incidence of age-related maculopathy lesions from a large, older white population, using almost identical methodology and grading to that used in the Beaver Dam Eye Study. In both studies, retinal signs were documented with stereo retinal photographs, and ARM lesions were graded using compatible protocols and manners. This permits a direct comparison between the two studies.
We were able to follow 75% of the survivors from this aging study cohort (mean age
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Supported by the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council, Canberra, Australia (Grant No. 974159).