WHAT IS MACULAR DEGENERATION?

Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness
affecting more Americans
than cataracts and glaucoma combined.

Few people are aware that macular degeneration is an incurable eye disease and that it is the leading cause of blindness for those aged 55 and older in the United States, affecting more than 10 million Americans.

Macular degeneration is caused by the deterioration of the central portion of the retina, the inside back layer of the eye that records the images we see and sends them via the optic nerve from the eye to the brain. The retina's central portion, known as the macula, is responsible for focusing central vision in the eye, and it controls our ability to read, drive a car, recognize faces or colors, and see objects in fine detail.

As people age, their chances for developing eye diseases increase dramatically. Unfortunately, the specific factors that cause macular degeneration are not conclusively known and research into this little-understood disease is limited by insufficient funding.

For demographics in the United States, please see;

• U.S. Map--Estimated Prevalence Rates of Vision Impairment & Blindness for Persons Age 40 and Older (PDF)^1.
• Estimated Number of Cases of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Excel)^1.

The AMDF Web site will help our readers to better understand macular degeneration. To understand macular degeneration, you should have a basic knowledge of the anatomy of a normal human eye.

For an animation showing the loss of central vision from macular degeneration, click here. (This video presentation requires Quicktime.)

     1. Vision Problems in the U.S.--Prevalence of Adult Vision Impairment and Age-Related Eye Diseases in America A joint project of the National Eye Institute and Prevent Blindness America