Adverse COVID-19 outcomes in American Veterans with age-related macular degeneration: a case-control study

Prior studies suggest that patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have poorer COVID-19 outcomes. This study aims to evaluate whether AMD is associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes in a large clinical database.

Case-control study.

We obtained demographic and clinical data from a national US Veterans Affairs (VA) database for all Veterans aged 50 years or older with positive COVID-19 testing prior to 2 May 2021.

The primary outcome measure was hospitalisation. Secondary outcome measures were intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation and death. Potential associations between AMD and outcome measures occurring within 60 days of COVID-19 diagnosis were evaluated using multiple logistic regression analyses.

Of the 171 325 patients in the study cohort, 7913 (5%) had AMD and 2152 (1%) had severe AMD, defined as advanced atrophic or exudative AMD disease coding. Multiple logistic regression adjusting for age, Charlson Comorbidity Index, sex, race, ethnicity and COVID-19 timing showed that an AMD diagnosis did not significantly increase the odds of hospitalisation (p=0.11). Using a Bonferroni-adjusted significance level of 0.006, AMD and severe AMD also were not significant predictors for the secondary outcomes, except for AMD being modestly protective for death (p=0.002).

After adjusting for other variables, neither AMD nor severe AMD was a risk factor for adverse COVID-19 outcomes in the VA healthcare system. These findings indicate that an AMD diagnosis alone should not alter recommended ophthalmic management based on COVID-19 adverse outcome risk.