Effect of age and sex on retinal thickness in normal eyes

Purpose: the aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of sex and age on macular thickness and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber thickness in normal population with optical coherence tomography. materials and methods: mediacal records of 500 healthy people aged 18-100 who applied to the burdur state hospital ophthalmology clinic between february 2017 and january 2018 were enrolled. exclusion criterias were having any eye disease or ocular surgery history and systemic disease.best corrected visual acuity of 20/20 according to snellen's chart, 10-20 mmhg of intraocular pressure, +/- 3.00 diopters of refractive values and optical coherence tomography measurements were received. statistical data was analyzed with a ibm spss 21; software program. independent sample t-test was used to compare macular thickness between age groups and to analyze sex related changes and to compare retinal thicknesses across sectors. two-way variance analysis was used to compare gender differences in age groups in central foveal thickness. results: central foveal thickness was significantly thicker in men than in women (p=0.001). there was no significant change in central foveal thickness with age (p=0.068). among age and gender groups; total peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in superior and inferior quadrant, optic disc cup and disc areas, and cup / disc ratio were not significantly changed. conclusion: significant changes were observed in retinal layers depending on the age and sex. therefore, these results must be considered when analyzing the retina associated with both systemic and retinal disease.