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Non-modifiable risk factors
Age
Increasing age is considered to be the most important risk factor for AMD.1 Reported prevalence ranges from 0.2 per cent of the population aged 55 to 64 years, 13 per cent in those older than 85 years2 and up to 25 per cent in those aged 65 to 75 years.3 Geographic atrophy – sharply delineated round or oval area of hypopigmentation or apparent absence of the RPE in which choroidal vessels are more visible than in surrounding areas – among the population is reported to increase from 0.04 per cent in those aged between 55 and 64 years, to 4.2 per cent for those older than 85 years. Exudative AMD follows a similar pattern, 0.17 per cent in those aged 55 to 64 years and 5.8 per cent for those older than 85 years.4 An eight- to 10-fold increase in the prevalence of the condition has been recorded in those over the age of 90 years, compared with those aged 50 years.5
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