Sudden Vision Loss and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in African Americans: The Jackson Heart Study

* Presented as a poster at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), Orlando, Florida, May 4–8, 2014.

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The prevalence and determinants of sudden vision loss (SVL) are unknown in African Americans (AAs). Since SVL can be cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related and CVD is highly prevalent in AAs, we examined the prevalence of and CVD factors related to self-reported SVL lasting 24 hours or longer in the cohort of AAs enrolled in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS).

Methods: The study population comprised 5301 participants enrolled from 2000–2004 in the metropolitan area of Jackson, MS, USA. All participants who responded to the question “Have you ever had any sudden loss of vision or blurring, lasting 24 hours or longer?” on the baseline stroke questionnaire were included in the study. We estimated the prevalence of SVL and used regression modeling to identify CVD factors independently related to SVL.

Results: A total of 5262 participants were included, of which 63% (3334/5262) were female. The prevalence of SVL was 3.6% (193/5262) overall (4.4% in females and 2.4% in males), and 8.7% (84/965) in patients with diabetes mellitus. Factors independently related to SVL included coronary heart disease (odds ratio, OR, 1.69, 95% confidence interval, CI, 1.12–2.56), cerebrovascular disease (OR 2.81, 95% CI 1.76–4.47), diabetes (OR 2.85, 95% CI 2.05–3.94), hypertension (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.09–2.45), female sex (OR 1.82, 95% CI 1.24–2.67), and income less than US$50,000 (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.28–3.30).

Conclusions: In this cohort of AAs, self-reported SVL lasting 24 hours or longer was highly prevalent in women and those with diabetes and was independently related to sex, CVD, CVD risk factors and household income.

• African Americans
• cardiovascular risk
• Jackson Heart Study
• vision loss

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank Curtis E. Margo, MD, MPH from the Department of Ophthalmology, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida for critically reviewing drafts of this paper.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

The Jackson Heart Study is supported by contracts N01-HC-95170, N01-HC-95171, N01-HC-95172 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, with additional support from the National Institute on Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

This material is the result of work supported with resources and the use of facilities at the Providence VA Medical Center.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government.

Notes

* Presented as a poster at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), Orlando, Florida, May 4–8, 2014.