Abstract
Purpose: A large-scale population-based study on ophthalmic disorders among patients suffering from chronic renal failure (CRF) is lacking in the literature. This study examined the prevalence and risk of selected ocular co-morbidities (including retinal disorders, uveitis, glaucoma, cataract, and dry eye) in patients with CRF.
Methods: Data were sourced from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database. 9,149 patients with CRF were included in the study group, and 27,447 matched patients in the comparison group (age 40-98 years). We calculated the prevalence of retinal disorders, uveitis, glaucoma, cataract, and dry eye for patients with and without CRF. Conditional logistic regression analyses were also performed to compare the risk of ophthalmic disorders for patients with and without CRF, after taking into consideration sex, age group, diabetes, hypertension, monthly income, geographic region, and level of urbanization of the patient’s community.
Results: In this study, patients with CRF had significantly higher prevalence of retinal disorders (16.62% vs. 9.70%), uveitis (1.38% vs. 0.95%), glaucoma (7.56% vs. 5.70%), and cataract (33.08% vs. 28.90%) than patients without CRF (all p < 0.001). However, no significant difference was observed in the prevalence of dry eye between these two groups. After adjusting for potential confounders, patients with CRF had higher odds of retinal disorder (odds ratio, OR, 1.84, 95% confidence interval, CI, 1.72–1.98), uveitis (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.07–1.66), glaucoma (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.23–1.48), and cataract (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.18–1.31) than patients without CRF.
Conclusion: We conclude that patients with CRF had a significantly higher prevalence of retinal disorders, uveitis, glaucoma, and cataract compared with patients without CRF.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study is based in part on data from the National Health Insurance Research Database provided by the Bureau of National Health Insurance, Department of Health, Taiwan and managed by the National Health Research Institutes. The interpretations and conclusions contained herein do not represent those of the Bureau of National Health Insurance, Department of Health, or the National Health Research Institutes.
Declaration of interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare. The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials mentioned in this article. No funding source for this study