Table 10.

Comparison of Estimated Annual Worsening and Improvement of Best Corrected Visual Acuity Stratified by Age in non-Hispanic Whites in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Blue Mountains, Australia and Los Angeles Latinos.

	LALES		BDES		BMES
Age at baseline (years)	N	% (CI)	N	% (CI)	N	% (CI)
		Worsening in better seeing eye (≥ 15 letters worse)*
<55	2583	0.3 (0.1, 0.5)	1239	0.02 (0.0, 0.1)	333	‡
55–64	1159	0.5 (0.1, 0.9)	1027	0.2 (0.0, 0.5)	846	0.04 (0.0, 0.2)
65–74	644	1.4 (0.5, 2.3)	926	0.34 (0.0, 0.7)	817	0.2 (0.0, 0.6)
75+	223	3.0 (0.8, 5.3)	375	1.7 (0.4, 3.0)	331	1.1 (0.0, 2.3)
		Improvement in worse seeing eye (≥ 15 letters better)†
<55	1077	0.3 (0.0, 0.6)	531	0.3 (0.0, 0.7)	159	0.3 (0.0, 1.1)
55–64	646	0.6 (0.0, 1.2)	614	0.2 (0.0, 0.6)	508	0.1 (0.0, 0.4)
65–74	473	1.3 (0.3, 2.3)	718	0.7 (0.1, 1.3)	632	0.4 (0.0, 0.9)
75+	208	1.8 (0.0, 3.6)	353	0.9 (0.0, 1.8)	318	0.8 (0.0, 1.8)

LALES = Los Angeles Latino Eye Study, BDES = Beaver Dam Eye Study, BMES = Blue Mountains Eye Study.

N= number at risk for incidence of visual impairment at baseline. % (CI)=prevalence and 95% confidence interval; Annual worsening and improvement rates are estimated from 4-year incidence data for LALES and 5-year incidence data for BDES and BMES.

^*Criterion for Worsening (≥ 15 letters worse) in the better seeing eye: Persons with incident worsening had a baseline BCVA of light perception or better in one or both eyes and at follow-up had BCVA loss of 15 or more letters read correctly in the better-seeing eye.

^†Criterion for Improvement (≥ 15 letters better) in the worse seeing eye: Persons capable of improving from Baseline by 15 or more letters read correctly in one or both eyes at best correction (BCVA 20/20 or worse) and at follow-up had an increase of 15 or more letters read correctly in the worse-seeing eye.

^‡No incident cases.