Of the 1181 persons who participated in the sixth examination phase of the BDES, there were 1036 with SIF measurements of whom 969 also had graded images for AMD. Selected characteristics for those who provided information for the analyses at the time of the examination (included) and those persons who did not (excluded) are given in the
Table. Those excluded were more likely to be older, female, and to have hypertension, diabetes, and late AMD.
Early AMD was present in 22% and late AMD in 4% of the eyes. For subtypes of late AMD, 2.5% had exudative AMD and 1.6% had pure GA. While adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, and cardiovascular disease history, there were no significant associations of any SIF measure to the presence of any AMD (
Fig. 2a), but there were suggestive associations with the presence of late AMD (
Fig. 2b), specifically no associations with exudative AMD (
Fig. 2c), and some associations with pure GA (
Fig. 2d). There were no statistically significant associations of any of the SIF measures with the presence of soft or large drusen or of pigmentary abnormalities (data not shown). There was an association of SIF03 with late AMD (odds ratio [OR] per 1 SD difference on the log scale: 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07–2.05,
P = 0.02;
Fig. 2b). SIF01 (OR per 1 SD on log scale: 1.66, 95% CI 1.00–2.74,
P = 0.05) and SIF03 (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.16–2.81,
P = 0.008) were associated with GA (
Fig. 2d). Significance remained after further adjustment for diabetes status and chronic kidney disease (data not shown).