Disease burden of age-related macular degeneration in China from 1990 to 2019: findings from the global burden of disease study

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the disease burden of age–related macular degeneration (AMD) in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALY) in China from 1990 to 2019. METHODS: Prevalence of blindness and vision loss due to AMD and DALY number, rate, and age-standardized rates of AMD were collected from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 database. The characters of variables were analyzed between China and its neighboring countries. RESULTS: From 1990 to 2019, the all-age number and rate for AMD prevalence and DALYs increased significantly in China, while the age standardized DALYs rate in 2019 showed a decrease of 3.63% compared with that in 1990. Females were found to have a higher prevalence and DALYs than males. The 65-69 age group had the highest AMD DALYs number, while the DALYs rate showed a positive association with age. In 2019, when compared to neighboring countries, the age standardized prevalence rate of AMD in China was ranked second after Pakistan, while the age standardized DALYs rate ranked second after Pakistan and India. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a small decrease in age standardized DALYs rate in China in the past three decades, the disease burden of AMD is still considerable and much higher compared to neighboring developed countries. Optimizing health services allocation is needed to further reduce this burden.