Age-related macular degeneration and 5-year incidence of impaired activities of daily living

Objectives: We aimed to assess the prospective association between age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and impaired activities of daily living (ADL) among a large cohort of older adults.

Study design: Functional status was determined by the Older Americans Resources and Services ADL scale from 2002-2004 to 2007-2009 among 761 participants aged 60+ years. AMD was assessed from retinal photographs.

Results: After adjusting for age, sex, living status, self-rated poor health, smoking, body mass index, visual impairment, hypertension, diabetes, hospital admissions in the past year, walking disability, probable depression, mini-mental state examination scores, having any AMD or late AMD increased the risk of incident impaired total ADL 5 years later, odds ratio, OR 2.87 (95% confidence intervals, CI 1.44-5.71) and OR 12.95 (95% CI 3.78-44.35), respectively. Having any AMD increased the risk of developing instrumental ADL disability over the 5 years, multivariable-adjusted OR 2.06 (95% CI 1.11-3.83).

Conclusions: This study shows that the presence of AMD could independently signal an increased risk of functional disability, particularly in performing instrumental ADL tasks.