Visual Impairment and Blindness Due to Macular Diseases Globally: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

ALL AUTHORS HAVE COMPLETED AND SUBMITTED THE ICMJE FORM FOR DISCLOSURE OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, and the following were reported. Dr Jonas is a consultant for Allergan Inc, Merck Sharp & Dohme Inc, Alimera Co, Boehringer Ingelheim Co, and Sanofi Co and is a patent holder with CellMed AG, Alzenau, Germany. The study was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle, Washington; Fight for Sight); the Fred Hollows Foundation (Alexandria, New South Wales, Australia); and the Brien Holden Vision Institute (Sydney, Australia). Design and conduct of study (J.B.J., R.R.B., R.A.W., S.R.F., J.K., J.L., K.N., K.P., H.P., T.Y.W., S.R., H.R.T.); Collection; management, analysis, and interpretation of data (J.B.J., R.R.B., R.A.W., S.R.F., J.K., J.L., K.N., K.P., H.P., T.Y.W., S.R., H.R.T.); and Preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript (J.B.J., R.R.B., R.A.W., S.R.F., J.K., J.L., K.N., K.P., H.P., T.Y.W., S.R., H.R.T.). Gretchen Stevens (World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland) profoundly helped in the statistical analysis of the data. Benita J O'Colmain (ICF International Inc, Rockville, MD, USA) assisted with the incorporation of microdata from several large population-based studies. The principal investigators of these and other studies are thanked for authorizing unpublished study data to be used in this project. Catherine Michaud (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle, WA, USA) and Colin Mathers (World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland) greatly assisted in the communications between the Global Burden of Disease Core Group and the Global Burden of Disease Vision Loss Expert Group. Donatella Pascolini (World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland) kindly assisted in retrieval of some unpublished data sources. A list of members of the Vision Loss Expert Group appears at http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/veru/other_research_areas/global_burden_of_diseases.html.