Table 1

Population based prevalence studies of age related maculopathy

Title of study, principal author, and year of publication		Number of subjects examined		Diagnostic criteria		Age groups (years)		Prevalence of
Title of study, principal author, and year of publication		Number of subjects examined		Diagnostic criteria		Age groups (years)		ARM	AMD	ARM/AMD combined
Blue Mountains Eye Study (Mitchell, 1995)		3654	Modified WARMGS29; no visual criteria; similar to international ARM study group diagnostic and grading criteria		49–54	1.30
Blue Mountains Eye Study (Mitchell, 1995)					55–64	2.6	0.2
		65–74			8.5	0.7
		75–84			15.5	5.4
		85+			28	18.5
Framingham Eye Study (Kahn, 1977)		2477	VA of 6/9 or worse; pigmentary, atrophic or neovascular macular changes, or drusen (hard or soft)		52–64			1.6
Framingham Eye Study (Kahn, 1977)					65–74			11
		74–85					27.9
Beaver Dam Eye Study (Klein, 1992)		4775	WARMGS29 no visual criteria		43–54	8.4	0.1
Beaver Dam Eye Study (Klein, 1992)					55–64	13.8	0.6
		65–74			18	1.4
		75+			29.7	7.1
NHANES (Klein, 1982)	3056	VA of 6/7.5 or worse; pigmentary, atrophic or neovascular macular changes, or drusen (hard or soft)		45–64			2.3
				65–74			9

WARMGS = The Wisconsin Age Related Maculopathy Grading System. This system grades characteristics of ARM in a semiquantitative fashion using stereoscopic 30 degree colour fundus photographs; VA = visual acuity; ARM = age related maculopathy; AMD = age related macular degeneration; NHANES = National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.