Incidence and Risk Factors for Blindness in Uveitis: A Nationwide Cohort Study from 2002 to 2013

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To investigate the incidence and risk factors of blindness in uveitis.

Methods: From a national sample cohort (n = 1,025,340), we selected 9,036 new-onset uveitis patients. Incidences of unilateral and bilateral blindness (visual acuities ≤20/400) were estimated and socioeconomic and clinical risk factors for unilateral blindness in uveitis patients were identified.

Result: Incidence of unilateral and bilateral blindness was 2.93 and 0.42 per 1,000 person-years, respectively. The risk factors for unilateral blindness were age >40 (hazard ratio [HR], 2.77, 95% CI [confidence interval], 1.11–6.92) and low household income (HR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.02–1.98) in uveitis overall, and Behçet’s disease (HR, 4.49; 95% CI, 1.59–12.71) in non-anterior uveitis, respectively.

Conclusions: Low household income and Behçet’s disease influence the risk of blindness in uveitis patients. These findings will help in assessing blindness-related socioeconomic burdens and planning health-care strategies for uveitis patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Uveitis
• blindness
• nationwide cohort
• household income
• Behcet’s disease

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.co.kr) for English language editing.

Declaration of interest

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

Data availability

The data set used with the findings of this study is the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) 2002-2013; doi: 10.1093/ije/dyv319

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Seoul National University Hospital Research Fund (2920180040).