Abstract
Purpose:
The Finnish Register of Visual Impairment is a national register regulated by the Act and Decree on National Personal Records kept under the Health Care System. Health Care Providers are, under the above-mentioned Act, responsible to forward to the Register such information on persons with visual impairment (VI). In order to evaluate the changes in VI due to glaucoma during the past 30 years the register data was statistically analyzed.
Methods:
Statistical analysis of the visually impaired persons in the register (n= 42.626 of which 16.747 are a live) in Finland (population 5,3 million) was analyzed in three 10 year cohorts in order to get information on the age at the time of the notification of VI, the severity of the impairment and the mean age of the death of the patients. VI is determined on the basis of WHO definition. WHO classes 3-5 are regarded as blind.
Results:
Altogether data on 4.144 visually impaired glaucoma patients was analyzed. Most common types of glaucoma of this register data was POAG 42% and exfoliative glaucoma (EXG) 30%. The female/ male ratio was 1,65. The median age of at the time of notification of VI for the three cohorts was 73,8, 76,6 and 78,4 years showing a significant (p<0,001) increase during the 30 year period. There was also a significant (p=0,00156) improvement in the WHO grading of the VI during this period. The age of death of glaucoma patients was slightly but not statistically significantly increased during the 30 years being 84,6, 87,0 and 88 years correspondingly.
Conclusions:
There has been a significant change in the profile of the VI in glaucoma characterized by increased age at the time of VI notification, the severity of VI. The life expectancy among the glaucoma patients has a trend to increase up to 86,0 years and rather surprisingly exceeding the mean of the Finnish population.
Keywords: 463 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence •
460 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: health care delivery/economics/manpower •
531 ganglion cells