PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Man, Ryan Eyn Kidd
AU  - Gan, Alfred Tau Liang
AU  - Fenwick, Eva K
AU  - Teo, Kelvin Yi Chong
AU  - Tan, Anna C S
AU  - Cheung, Gemmy Chui Ming
AU  - Teo, Zhen Ling
AU  - Kumari, Neelam
AU  - Wong, Tien Yin
AU  - Cheng, Ching-Yu
AU  - Lamoureux, Ecosse Luc
TI  - Impact of incident age-related macular degeneration and associated vision loss on vision-related quality of life
AID  - 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2020-318269
DP  - 2022 Aug 01
TA  - British Journal of Ophthalmology
PG  - 1063--1068
VI  - 106
IP  - 8
4099  - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/106/8/1063.short
4100  - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/106/8/1063.full
SO  - Br J Ophthalmol2022 Aug 01; 106
AB  - Background We examined the associations between the 6-year incidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and vision-related quality of life (VRQoL), and the contribution of presenting visual acuity (VA), in an Asian population.Methods Fundus images from the Singapore Chinese Eye Study, a population-based cohort study (baseline: 2009–2011; follow-up: 2015–2017), were graded using a modified Wisconsin age-related maculopathy grading system. Incident AMD was defined as no baseline AMD in both eyes and early/late AMD in the worse eye at follow-up. Presenting VA was assessed using the logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution chart at 4 m under standard lighting conditions with habitual correction. Multiple linear regression models determined the associations between AMD incidence with changes in the Rasch-transformed scores of the Reading, Mobility and Emotional VRQoL domains of the 32-item Impact of Visual Impairment (IVI-32) questionnaire, adjusted for traditional confounders. The contribution of presenting VA to changes in VRQoL was also estimated.Results Of the 2251 participants without AMD at baseline (mean age (SD): 57.7 (9) years, 51.4% women), 101 (4.5%) and 11 (0.5%) developed incident early and late AMD at follow-up, respectively. Incident late AMD was associated with significant 30.3%, 32.5% and 30.9% decrements in Reading, Mobility and Emotional IVI scores, respectively. The contribution of presenting VA ranged between 1.62% and 4.35% of the observed decrements. No significant associations were noted with incident early AMD.Conclusion Incident late AMD had a substantial impact on all aspects of VRQoL, with presenting VA contributing only minimally to this longitudinal relationship.Data are available upon reasonable request. Due to Singapore’s strict data sharing law, any data requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.