18
leading to an estimation of about 84 000 cases of late
AMD in Portugal (Table 4). A major limitation to
this approach is that it does not take into account the
prevalence rates of AMD in non Caucasians living in
Portugal. As shown above, the prevalence of late AMD
appear lower in subjects of African origin. However, no
data are available on the prevalence of AMD in subjects
of African, or other ethnic origins (for instance North
Africa and Asia) in European populations. It appears dif-
ficult to assess the prevalence of AMD while taking into
account the multi-ethnic structure of the Portuguese
population. However, these ethnic subgroups represent
small minorities in Portugal, so that this may only mar-
ginally affect the global prevalence rates.
According to these estimations, about two thirds of cases
are women, and two thirds of cases are aged 80 years or
more. Since it represents about 55% of late cases, neo-
vascular AMD probably affects about 46 000 subjects.
In most studies performed in Asians, the prevalence
of early AMD appears similar to that observed in
Caucasians, consistently to what was found for late
AMD
(8-10,12,13,18,19)
.
5. Prevalence of late AMD in Portugal
To our knowledge, there are no published data on the
prevalence of AMD in Portugal. What can therefore be
extrapolated from available data in other countries? As
explained above, the prevalence of late AMD appears
to be similar in Caucasian populations from industrial-
ized countries. Its best estimate therefore derives from
the meta-analysis by Friedman et al
(3)
. We, thus, applied
the age and gender-specific prevalence rates of the
meta-analysis to the demographic data from Portugal,
Table 4. Prevalence of late AMD in Portugal according to age and gender
Population of Portugal
AMD prevalence (%) *
Number with AMD
Men
50-54
309 484
0,34
1 052
55-59
268 899
0,41
1 102
60-64
256 179
0,63
1 614
65-69
244 230
1,08
2 638
70-74
196 615
1,98
3 893
75-79
143 439
3,97
5 695
80+
123 934
11,90
14 748
Total men
1 542 780
1,99
30 742
Women
50-54
333 032
0,20
666
55-59
302 553
0,22
666
60-64
294 737
0,35
1 032
65-69
293935
0,70
2 058
70-74
257 347
1,52
3 912
75-79
204 627
3,44
7 039
80+
229 366
16,39
37 593
Total women
1 915 597
2,76
52 965
Total
3 458 377
2,42
83 707
