Racial Differences in Retinopathy of Prematurity

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To delineate racial differences in the incidence and time course of ROP in a large cohort of premature infants.

Methods

The secondary analysis of data from the two Postnatal Growth and ROP Studies (G-ROP-1 and G-ROP-2) that were collected in 41 hospitals in North America from 2006 to 2017. According to self-reported maternal race, premature infants were classified into 3 groups: White (N = 5580), Black (N = 3252), and Asian (N = 353). Incidence, severity, and time course of ROP; plus disease; and postnatal weight gain rate were compared among racial groups.

Results

Black infants had significantly smaller BW (mean 1035 vs. 1131 vs.1144 grams, P < .001) and lower GA (28.2 vs. 28.6, vs. 29.1 weeks, P < .001) than White and Asian infants. However, Black infants had lower incidences of severe ROP (11.1% vs. 12.4% vs. 11.9%), ROP (42.1% vs. 43.2% vs. 30.6%), and plus disease (3.6% vs. 6.3%, vs. 5.9%) than White and Asian infants (BW and GA adjusted risk ratio for Black vs. White 0.69 for severe ROP, 0.83 for ROP, 0.44 for plus disease, all P < .0001). Mean daily-weight-gain on days of life 11–20 and 21–30 were similar across groups (P > .05), but lower in Black and Asian infants on days 31–40 (P < .001). There were no differences in the timing of severe ROP and ROP across racial groups.

Conclusions

Despite relatively lower GA, BW, and daily-weight-gain, Black preterm infants had lower incidences of ROP and plus disease than White preterm infants. The mechanisms for these differences require further investigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Retinopathy of prematurity
• infants
• race
• racial difference
• retina
• weight gain
• premature infants

Disclosure statement

All authors had no conflict of interests with materials presented in this article.

Statement

This submission has not been published anywhere previously and that it is not simultaneously being considered for any other publication.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09286586.2023.2168014

Additional information

Funding

Supported by NIH grants R01EY021137-01A (Binenbaum), R21EY029776 (Ying), R21EY026664 (Wang), and the Richard Shafritz Chair in Ophthalmology Research.National Eye Institute [R01EY021137-01A,R21EY026664,R21EY029776];