Research finds NHS is underestimating AMD

The NHS may be seriously underestimating the number of people with sight loss caused by age-related macular degeneration (AMD), with new research pointing out that 40,000 people develop wet AMD each year.

The study in the British Journal of Ophthalmology reported that the NHS and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence have previously used a much lower estimate of 26,000 new cases a year. It suggested that a further 44,000 people a year were also diagnosed with dry AMD.

The Macular Disease Society (MDS), which funded the research, said that the prevalence of AMD increased exponentially with age, roughly quadrupling every decade of life, with one in 2,000 affected at 60, rising to more than one in five by the age of 90.