Age-related macular degeneration declining

MADISON, Wis., Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The eye disease age-related macular degeneration has declined in the last 15 years, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Ronald Klein of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison finds the disease affects 6.5 percent of Americans age 40 and older -- down from 9.4 percent reported in the 1988 to 1994.

The study, published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, also finds non-Hispanic blacks age 60 and older had a lower prevalence of any age-related macular degeneration than non-Hispanic whites of the same age.

"The decreasing prevalence of age-related macular degeneration may reflect recent change in the frequency of smoking and other exposures such as diet, physical activity and blood pressure associated with age-related macular degeneration," Klein says in a statement.

"However, it remains to be seen whether public health programs designed to increase awareness of the relationships of these exposures to age-related macular degeneration in patients at risk and their physicians and eye care providers will continue to result in further decline of the prevalence of age-related macular degeneration in the population."

Klein, the study leader, and his colleagues analyzed data from the 2005 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 7,081 adults age 40 and older for whom digital images were assessed for signs of age-related macular degeneration.