Do Season and Environment Have a Role in the Incidence of Anterior Uveitis Attacks?

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To investigate the seasonal influence on the incidence of uveitis attacks.

Methods

An ecological study was designed including 731 uveitis attacks in 594 patients diagnosed at the eye emergency of a hospital in Madrid between 2014 and 2017. The incidence of uveitis attacks, B27+, and presumed herpetic attacks were calculated, and their correlations with seasonal and environmental variables in the same timeframe were analyzed. The analyzed variables were precipitation, barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed, global solar radiation, ultraviolet radiation, air pollution components (particulate matter and polluting gases), and the incidence of influenza.

Results

The incidence of attacks was significantly higher in the winter than in the autumn (p = .025). It showed a significant correlation to the number of rainy days per month (r = 0.612;p = .04), and the average wind speed (r = 0.469;p = .02) after Bonferroni correction.

Conclusion

Uveitis episodes happened more frequently under rainy and windy conditions. Most factors were not significantly correlated to attacks.

Keywords:

• Climate
• environment
• rain
• season
• uveitis
• wind speed

Declaration of interest

JJGL is a stockholder of Gilead Sciences, has been co-investigator for Hoffmann-La Roche AG, and has received study grants from Allergan, Abbvie, Angellini, and Bayer.