Product information and disease description Place of product in therapy Disease description Epidemiology

Prevalence of Wet age-related macular degeneration

10 evidence topics · 6 sources

Summary: prevalence

In a Bayesian meta-regression for 2019 using CDC Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System data, an estimated 1.49 million US adults aged 40 years or older (crude prevalence 0.94%) had late-stage AMD (choroidal neovascularization and/or geographic atrophy) and 18.34 million had early-stage AMD. The 2004 Eye Diseases Prevalence Research Group estimate was 1.75 million US adults with neovascular AMD and/or geographic atrophy (1.47%). No recent US estimate specific to the neovascular subtype was retrieved. Globally, the pooled prevalence of late AMD in people aged 45 to 85 years was 0.37% and of any AMD 8.69%, with 196 million people projected to have AMD in 2020 and 288 million in 2040.

United States, 2019: early- and late-stage AMD

“For 2019, we estimated that there were 18.34 million people 40 years and older (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 15.30-22.03) living with early-stage AMD, corresponding to a crude prevalence rate of 11.64% (95% UI, 9.71-13.98). We estimated there were 1.49 million people 40 years and older (95% UI, 0.97-2.15) living with late-stage AMD, corresponding to a crude prevalence rate of 0.94% (95% UI, 0.62-1.36).” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“late-stage (defined as choroidal neovascularization and/or geographic atrophy in either eye)” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

United States, 2000: neovascular AMD and/or geographic atrophy

“The overall prevalence of neovascular AMD and/or geographic atrophy in the US population 40 years and older is estimated to be 1.47% (95% confidence interval, 1.38%-1.55%), with 1.75 million citizens having AMD. The prevalence of AMD increased dramatically with age, with more than 15% of the white women older than 80 years having neovascular AMD and/or geographic atrophy.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

United States: guideline summary and projection

“In 2019, there were an estimated 20 million individuals in the United States with AMD; of these, 18.34 million had early stages of AMD and 1.49 million had late stages of AMD.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“the prevalence of AMD in the United States is anticipated to increase to 22 million by the year 2050, whereas the global prevalence is expected to increase to 288 million by the year 2040.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Global prevalence: meta-analysis of 39 population-based studies

“Analysis of 129,664 individuals (aged 30-97 years), with 12,727 cases from 39 studies, showed the pooled prevalence (mapped to an age range of 45-85 years) of early, late, and any age-related macular degeneration to be 8.01% (95% CrI 3.98-15.49), 0.37% (0.18-0.77), and 8.69% (4.26-17.40), respectively.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“The projected number of people with age-related macular degeneration in 2020 is 196 million (95% CrI 140-261), increasing to 288 million in 2040 (205-399).” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Global vision impairment due to AMD, 1990 to 2021 and forecast to 2050

“Globally, the number of individuals with vision impairment due to AMD more than doubled, rising from 3·64 million (95% uncertainty inverval [UI] 3·04–4·35) in 1990 to 8·06 million (6·71–9·82) in 2021.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“By 2050, the number of individuals affected by AMD is projected to increase from 3·40 million males (95% UI 2·81–4·17) in 2021 to 9·02 million (5·72–14·20) and from 4·66 million females (3·88–5·65) to 12·32 million (8·88–17·08).” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Late-stage AMD prevalence by sex and by race and ethnicity, United States 2019

“The race and ethnicity- and age-standardized rate of late-stage AMD for women (0.94%; 95% UI, 0.57-1.43) was nearly identical to that for men (0.95%; 95% UI, 0.56-1.43).” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“The gender- and age-standardized rate of late AMD for non-Hispanic White individuals 40 years and older was 1.03% (95% UI, 0.65-1.52).” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Group	Prevalence count, in millions (95% UI)	Prevalence rate, % (95% UI)
Female	“0.88 (0.53-1.35)”	“0.94 (0.57-1.43)”
Male	“0.60 (0.36-0.91)”	“0.95 (0.56-1.43)”
Total	“1.49 (0.97-2.15)”	“0.94 (0.62-1.36)”
Hispanic	“0.05 (0.02-0.10)”	“0.38 (0.16-0.79)”
Non-Hispanic Black	“0.09 (0.05-0.14)”	“0.65 (0.37-1.03)”
Non-Hispanic White	“1.25 (0.78-1.86)”	“1.03 (0.65-1.52)”
Non-Hispanic other race	“0.09 (0.04-0.18)”	“1.02 (0.44-1.99)”

Late-stage AMD prevalence by state, United States 2019

“Age-, gender-, and race and ethnicity- standardized prevalence for those 40 years or older ranged from a low of 0.61% (95% UI, 0.40-0.88) in Hawaii to a high of 1.16% (95% UI, 0.76-1.69) in North Dakota” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“We also estimated substantial variation in the prevalence of both early- and late-stage AMD at the state and county level, even after accounting for differences in demographics.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Global prevalence of the neovascular and geographic atrophy subtypes, by ethnicity

“Eight (21%) of the 39 studies provided information on geographic atrophy and neovascular subtypes.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“Subgroup analysis showed similar overall prevalence of geographic atrophy (0·44%, 95% CrI 0·15–1·36) and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (0·46%, 0·18–1·08).” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“Europeans had a higher prevalence of geographic atrophy (1·11%, 95% CrI 0·53–2·08) than Africans (0·14%, 0·04–0·45), Asians (0·21%, 0·04–0·87), and Hispanics (0·16%, 0·05–0·46).” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Neovascular AMD as a share of prevalent late-stage AMD

“Although neovascular AMD accounts for only two thirds of prevalent late-stage cases, it is responsible for over 80% of legal blindness due to AMD.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)