You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Global issues
Education, socio-economic status and age-related macular degeneration in Asians: the Singapore Malay Eye Study
  1. P Cackett1,2,
  2. W T Tay1,
  3. T Aung1,2,3,
  4. J J Wang4,5,
  5. A Shankar6,
  6. S M Saw6,
  7. P Mitchell4,
  8. T Y Wong1,2,3,5
  1. 1
    Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore
  2. 2
    Singapore National Eye Centre, Singapore
  3. 3
    Department of Ophthalmology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  4. 4
    Centre for Vision Research, University of Sydney, Australia
  5. 5
    Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, Australia
  6. 6
    Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine National University of Singapore, Singapore
  1. Professor T Y Wong, Centre for Eye Research Australia, The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, University of Melbourne, 32 Gisborne Street, Melbourne 3002, Victoria, Australia; twong{at}unimelb.edu.au

Abstract

Background/aims: Low socio-economic status is increasingly being identified as a risk marker for chronic diseases, but few studies have investigated the link between socio-economic factors and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The present study aimed to assess the association between socio-economic status and the prevalence of AMD.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study of 3280 (78.7% response rate) Malay adults aged 40–80 years residing in 15 south-western districts of Singapore. AMD was graded from retinal photographs at a central reading centre using the modified Wisconsin AMD scale. Early and late AMD signs were graded from retinal photographs following the Wisconsin grading system. Socio-economic status including education, housing type and income were determined from a detailed interview.

Results: Of the participants, 3265 had photographs of sufficient quality for grading of AMD. Early AMD was present in 168 (5.1%) and late AMD in 21 (0.6%). After adjusting for age, gender, smoking, hypertension, diabetes and body mass index, participants with lower educational levels were significantly more likely to have early AMD (multivariate OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.0). This association was stronger in persons who had never smoked (multivariate OR 3.6, 95% confidence CI 1.4 to 9.4). However, no association with housing type or income was seen.

Conclusions: Low educational level is associated with a higher prevalence of early AMD signs in our Asian population, independent of age, cardiovascular risk factors and cigarette smoking.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjo.2007.136077

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Funding: This study was funded by Funded by the National Medical Research Council (NMRC), 0796/2003 & the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC), 501/1/25-5, with support from the Singapore Prospective Study Program and the Singapore Tissue Network, A*STAR.

    • Competing interests: None.

    • Ethics approval: The study was approved by the Singapore Eye Research Institute Ethics Committee.

    • Patient consent: Obtained.