This epidemiologic study is designed to investigate ethnic and regional differences in the prevalence of age-related maculopathy. Existing data from the San Luis Valley Diabetes Study and the Beaver Dam Eye Study will be used. As part of the study of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the biethnic population of the San Luis Valley in Colorado, stereoscopic color fundus photographs were obtained for investigations of diabetic retinopathy. We propose to grade these photographs (n=1,582) for the presence and severity of age-related maculopathy using the same standardized methods employed in the Beaver Dam Eye Study, a large (n=4,926) population-based study of age-related ocular disorders in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. We will use these data to determine the prevalence of age-related maculopathy in Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites residing in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. We will compare the prevalence of this disorder in Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites in the San Luis Valley and in participants in Beaver Dam to investigate the associations of ethnicity and geographic region with the presence and severity of age-related maculopathy. We will use previously collected data about smoking, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, blood pressure, alcohol consumption, total and HDL cholesterol, socioeconomic factors and occupation to assess their associations with age-related maculopathy in Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites in the San Luis Valley and to investigate their effects on ethnic/regional differences in prevalence. This study will provide the first data about the prevalence of age-related maculopathy in Hispanic Americans. These epidemiologic data will provide new information about the roles of ethnicity and geographic region in development of this vision-threatening disorder and will be useful for estimating the need for health care services in minority populations.
| Cruickshanks, K J; Hamman, R F; Klein, R et al. (1997) The prevalence of age-related maculopathy by geographic region and ethnicity. The Colorado-Wisconsin Study of Age-Related Maculopathy. Arch Ophthalmol 115:242-50 |
