Purpose:
To identify risk factors for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in an Algerian population.
Methods:
This multicenter epidemiological study was carried out in Algeria by 23 ophthalmologists who aimed to include all patients aged of 55 years or more (whatever the reason for consultation), between February and May 2011.. Patients filled in a standardized questionnaire on risk factors. The ophthalmologist then performed an eye examination and collected data on iris colour, cataract surgery, refraction, fundus. Patients affected by soft drusen and/or pigmentary abnormalities were classified as early AMD, whereas patients affected by geographic atrophy and/or neovascular AMD were classified as late AMD. Subjects with early and late AMD were compared to those without AMD using polytomous nominal logistic regression.
Results:
Among the 1183 included subjects, 68 (5.7%) presented late AMD, 288 (24.3%) early AMD and 827 (69.9%) were free of AMD. In the final multivariate model, factors significantly associated with increased risk for AMD were: black-African ethnicity (OR: 9.25 and 19.04 for early and late AMD,respectively), atherosclerosis (OR: 3.28and 1.94), family history of AMD (OR: 4.48,significant for late AMD only), beer consumption (OR: 9.93 and 14.36), cataract surgery (OR: 1.71 and 2.71), myopia (OR: 3.74 and 5.61), hyperopia (OR: 1.91 and 2.00), fruits and vegetables consumption (OR: 2.64, significant for early AMD only), while high consumption of green vegetables was associated with reduced risk of AMD (OR: 0.41 and 0.28).
Conclusions:
To our knowledge, this is the first epidemiological study of AMD in North-Africans. Some of risk factors are similar to previous findings in other populations (family history of AMD, cataract surgery, cardiovascular disease, refraction, consumption of alcohol and green vegetables), while others are more surprising (increased risk in Black-African subjects and in high consumers of fruits and vegetables). These data will need to be confirmed in future studies. We also plan to compare these results to those of a similar study conducted in Italy and including subjects of North-African origin.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: health care delivery/economics/manpower • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: risk factor assessment • drusen