Prevalence and Risk Factors Of ARMD At Tertiary Care Hospital SMIMER , Surat

Abstract

PREVALENCE AND RISK FACTORS OF ARMD AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL , SMIMER SURAT

Background

Age Related Macular Degeneration due to pigmentary and atrophic changes in macular region is causing impairment of central vision with increasing age. It is a leading cause of irreversible vision loss among people aged 50 years or older. It ranks as 3rd cause of blindness after Cataract and Glaucoma which has global prevalence of 8.7%(2). Prevalence of Age-Related Macular Degeneration in India is in range of 1.8% to 4.7% (3) ARMD is a multi-factorial disease and the full aetiopathogenesis of ARMD has not yet been unveiled.

Various factors responsible are lifestyle, nutritional, and genetic factors, Other risk factors are alcohol, tobacco chewing, hormonal therapy, cataract surgery etc. Identification of risk factor and their relation with ARMD should be done to decrease the number of new cases by modifying their life style and there by dependency. The aim of this publication is to estimate the prevalence of ARMD and identify the risk factors associated with ARMD.

Methods

A hospital based cross sectional study carried out at a tertiary health centre in Ophthalmology OPD setting to estimate the prevalence of Age Related Macular Degeneration by screening patients aged above 50 years and to identify associated risk factors

Prior Permission from the ethical committee has been taken to conduct the study.

All the patients falling under inclusion criteria enrolled in the study their proforma was filled up and following criterias were examined their detailed history , Visual assesment , Anterior segment examination , Posterior segment examination , OCT was done. Informed consent was taken from all patients taken into study. 

SAMPLE SIZE- all the patients falling under inclusion criteria, attending the eye opd ,who gave consent for the study were considered as sample size. 

Results

Among total 1968 patients screened, 44 patients were found to have ARMD . Prevalence of total ARMD was found to be 2.2 % based on poplulation screened during study period

Males had high risk of ARMD than females in current study.

Modifiable risk factors such as alcohol intake (p value 0.01), smoking (p value 0.02) and tobacco chewer (p value 0.04) had positive association with ARMD .Therefore Analysing the risk factors at the earliest can help prevent the disease.

Conclusion

• ARMD is becoming an important cause of vision loss in India due to ageing population because of better longevity.


• Estimated Prevalence of ARMD as per our study is2.2% . Analysing the risk factors ,ARMD was 59.09% of alcoholic patients, 86.36% of smokers and 84.09% of tobacco chewers. Therefore analysing risk factors showed positive association of risk factors with ARMD


• Screening and follow up for early diagnosis and progression helps to initiate treatment at proper time in Advanced forms of ARMD, to improve the quality of life of patients. Interprofessional communication between physician and ophthalmologist can help for early disease detection and thereby visual disability. Lifestyle modifications like avoiding smoking, alcohol consumption, tobacco chewing, help to slow down the disease progression.