Prevalence of myopic maculopathy in the German population: results from the Gutenberg health study

Abstract

AimsTo determine the prevalence of myopic maculopathy in the general population in Germany and to analyse potential associations with ocular and systemic factors.DesignThe Gutenberg Health Study is a population-based study, including 15 010 participants aged 35–74 years.MethodsMyopic maculopathy was graded in phakic eyes with spherical equivalent ≤−6 D by assessing fundus photographs according to a recent international photographic classification system (META-PM). 801 eyes of 519 participants (mean age 51.0±0.77 years) met the conditions and had gradable fundus photographs. Age-specific prevalence estimates were computed. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to assess associated factors with myopic maculopathy.ResultsMyopic maculopathy was present in 10.3% (95% CI 7.9 to 13.3) study participants. The prevalence was 8.6% (95% CI 6.1% to 11.9%) in the 397 right eyes and 8.7% (95% CI 6.2% to 12.0%) in the 404 left eyes. The most common type of pathology was diffuse atrophy (8.1%), followed by patchy atrophy (1.3%) and macular atrophy (0.5%); plus lesions were present in 3% (right eyes). Age (OR 1.07 per year, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.11, p<0.001), higher myopic refractive error (p<0.001), and male gender (p=0.02) were associated with myopic maculopathy, while cardiovascular risk factors and socioeconomic factors were not.ConclusionsThe prevalence of myopic maculopathy in the German population was 0.5%, and 10% in high myopic participants, aged 35–74 years. These population-based data are the first in Europe. Myopic maculopathy was related to severity of myopic refractive error and age.

Progression of myopia in teenagers and adults: a nationwide longitudinal study of a prevalent cohort

“…2 Myopia is also a risk factor for various pathologies such as glaucoma, 3 cataract, 4 retinal detachment 5 and myopic maculopathy. 6 The latter has been reported to affect 0.5% of Germans aged 35-74 years 7 and 3.8% of older Singaporean adults (mean age 57.2 years). 8 In East Asia, myopia affects 80% to 90% of young adults.…”

Clinical Characteristics of Highly Myopic Patients With Asymmetric Myopic Atrophic Maculopathy–Analysis Using Multimodal Imaging

“…10,29 Some systemic conditions, such as aging, gender, and hypertension, were also related to the development and progression of myopic maculopathy. [2][3][4]9,28,30,31 Clinically, we observed that some patients without significant anisometropia in both eyes had different MAM severities. In this situation, the elongated axial length was not the only contributing factor.…”

“…M yopic maculopathy is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in this era, and its development and progression are strongly associated with aging and elongated axial length. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] According to the newly proposed atrophy, traction, and neovascularization (ATN) classification system, myopic maculopathy can be classified into myopic atrophic maculopathy (MAM), myopic neovascular maculopathy (MNM), and myopic tractional maculopathy (MTM). 10 However, the mechanism underlying the development of MAM has not been fully elucidated.…”

The Risks and Benefits of Myopia Control

“…Since publication of the above data, four more reports of the relation between myopia level and the prevalence of myopic maculopathy have been published, [102][103][104][105] plus a fifth that does not contain sufficient categories. 106 All available studies are summarized in Table 3 and represent data from over 10,000 myopes.…”