Risk factors and global prevalence of Neovascular age-related macular degeneration: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis
Keywords:
Neovascular age-related macular degeneration, risk factors, global prevalenceAbstract
Background: Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is the most prevalent cause of blindness among individuals over 50 years old in developed countries. nAMD can result in vision loss due to the degeneration of the retinal pigment epithelium or the formation of abnormal blood vessels called choroidal neovascular membranes (CNVM) beneath the macula. These CNVM can leak fluid and blood, leading to the formation of a scar that can cause severe vision impairment.
Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted on various databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, OVID MEDLINE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, Chinese Biomedicine Literature Database (CBM-SinoMed), and VIP to gather research literatures on the risk factors and global prevalence of nAMD. The search strategy Headings (MeSH) terms and free-text terms, and Stata12.0 software was utilized for meta-analysis of the collected data.