Five-Year Incidence of Myopic Maculopathy in a General Japanese Population

Abstract

IMPORTANCE Myopic maculopathy is a leading cause of irreversible visual impairment worldwide. Moreover, the burden of myopic maculopathy has been expected to increase owing to the rising prevalence of myopia globally. However, there is limited epidemiologic evidence regarding the incidence of and risk factors for myopic maculopathy. This study from Japan, with a relatively high prevalence of myopia, could provide valuable information related to these issues. OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence of myopic maculopathy and its risk factors in Hisayama in southwestern Japan. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A population-based prospective cohort study in aJapanese community in Hisayama, Japan. The study included a total of 2164 residents 40 years or older who had no myopic maculopathy at the baseline eye examination in 2012 and underwent follow-up eye examinations in 2017. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESIncidence of myopic maculopathy. The grades of myopic maculopathy were categorized based on the criteria of the Meta-analysis of Pathologic Myopia Study Group classification system. RESULTSThe mean (SD) age of the study participants was 62.4 (10.9) years, and the proportion of men was 42.5% (920 participants). In the follow-up examination in 2017, 24 patients developed myopic maculopathy. The 5-year cumulative incidence of myopic maculopathy was 1.1% (95% CI, 0.6-1.5) overall, 1.4% (95% CI, 0.6-2.2) for men, and 0.9% (95% CI, 0.4-1.4) for women. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that older age (per 1 year; odds ratio [OR], 1.06; 95% CI, 1.01-1.11) and longer axial length (per 1 mm; OR, 2.94; 95% CI, 2.19-3.95) were associated with incident myopic maculopathy.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Twenty-four study participants (1%) developed myopic maculopathy during the 5-year study period, which is much higher than the rate in a previous study on a Chinese population. We also confirmed that aging and longer axial length were independent and significant risk factors for myopic maculopathy. These findings should be reviewed among various populations in other parts of the world.

Four-Year Progression of Myopic Maculopathy in Children and Adolescents With High Myopia

“…The most common change of myopic maculopa- Previous studies have shown that compared with individuals with stable fundus, those with myopic maculopathy progression were more likely to have worse BCVA, longer AL, faster AL elongation, and higher myopic SE. 14,16,[20][21][22][23][24] Our results were largely consistent with these publications, except for older age. Interestingly, similar to another investigation focused on the young Chinese population, 11 age did not show an association with the progression of myopic maculopathy in our study.…”

Incidence and its risk factors of high myopia in Chinese rural adults: A population-based six-year cohort study

“…The current study found that age was a risk factor of high myopia, similar findings were reported by Hwang HS 23 and coworkers in a cross-sectional study. Ueda E 24 and coworkers, based on a cohort study, found that older age and longer axial length were associated with the development of myopic maculopathy. Jing S 25 and coworkers also reported that age was positively associated with high myopia.…”

Vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors for predominantly Caucasian myopic choroidal neovascularization: 2‐year treatment outcomes in clinical practice: data from the Fight Retinal Blindness! Registry

“…These associations may reflect the fact that older patients tend to have more extensive pathology and more myopic changes such as MA (Ueda et al. 2020 ).…”