Risk factor analysis for atrophic and exudative age-related macular degeneration. An epidemiological study of 1000 aged individuals.

The relationship between age-related macular degeneration and cardiovascular risk factors and certain life-style factors, collected in the Copenhagen City Heart Study (1981-83), was studied by multiple logistic regression analysis. The ophthalmological study sample comprised 1000 randomly selected persons aged 60 to 80 years. Separate analyses were made for the atrophic and the exudative forms of age-related macular degeneration. Among all the possible risk factors analysed, only three factors were significantly associated with macular degeneration. Age was associated with both atrophic and exudative macular degeneration (P less than 0.01). Among smokers who inhaled, the risk of atrophic maculopathy was 2.5 times higher than among non-smokers (P less than 0.01), whereas the use of hypnotics increased the risk of exudative maculopathy by 3.4 times (P less than 0.01).