Abstract
Purpose:
Evaluate the incidence and prevalence of episcleritis and scleritis in a large, well-defined population in Northern California.
Methods:
Secondary data analysis was performed on data from the Northern California Epidemiology of Uveitis Study (NCEU). The patient database of a large, regional health maintenance organization was searched for all patients who potentially experienced ocular inflammatory disease during the 12-month study period. Medical records were reviewed for all potential patients to confirm ocular inflammatory disease and the specific diagnosis, establish time of onset, and collect additional data. Age- and gender-stratified quarterly study population data were used to calculate incidence rates and prevalence ratios.
Results:
The midperiod population was 731,895 for the study population. After reviewing 2011 possible cases, 297 new onset cases of episcleritis, 39 prior onset cases of episcleritis, 25 new onset cases of scleritis, and 8 prior onset cases of scleritis were confirmed. For patients with episcleritis, overall the incidence was 40.7 per 100,000 person-years. Females between the ages of 45-64 had the highest incidence rate (74.0 per 100,000 person years) and the highest prevalence ratio (91.5 per 100,000 persons). Men from the ages of 25-44 had the highest incidence rate (41.1 per 100,000 person years) and prevalence ratio (43.6 per 100,000 persons). The overall incidence of scleritis was 3.4 per 100,000 person-years. Females aged 65 years or older had the highest incidence of scleritis (8.1 per 100,000 person-years) and the highest prevalence ratio (12.1 per 100,000 persons). For men, those from 45-64 years of age had the highest incidence rate (5.5 per 100,000 person-years) and prevalence ratio (8.7 per 100,000 persons) for scleritis. Scleritis patients were older than episcleritis patients, with a mean age of 45.6 and 52.6, respectively (p=0.017).
Conclusions:
This report found that scleritis patients were older than episcleritis patients, and that women had higher rates of both episcleritis and scleritis compared to men.
Keywords: 463 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence •
708 sclera