Relationship between Maternal Race/Ethnicity and Retinopathy of Prematurity in a Colorado Cohort

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the incidence of high grade Retinopathy of Prematurity (Type 1 or Type 2) in babies born to women from different racial and ethnic groups in a contemporary cohort (2008 to 2012) at two tertiary care neonatal intensive care units (University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado).

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study on the records of 650 newborns who underwent Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) screening using the 2013 screening criteria (gestational age at delivery less than 31 weeks’ gestation or birth weight ≤ 1500 grams). We excluded: Low grade ROP (n = 116) and other or uncertain race/ethnicity (n=150). We examined the incidence of ROP across race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, Hispanic, African American, and Asian).

Results: In the analytic dataset (n = 384), there were 56 (14.6%) newborns who developed high grade ROP. The number of babies with high grade ROP born to Asian, Non-Hispanic White, Hispanic and African American women was 2/12 (16.67%), 32/197 (16.24%), 22/134 (16.42%), and 0/41 (0%) respectively (P =.05). We found a significant difference in the mean gestational age (weeks) at delivery (P=.01) and mean birth weight (grams) between the groups (P=.03). The gestational ages at delivery (mean ± SD) across the groups were: non-Hispanic White (28.6 ± 2.4), Hispanic (28.4 ± 2.4), African American (29.6 ± 1.7), and Asian (27.6 ± 2.4). The birth weights (mean ± SD) across the groups were: non-Hispanic White (1154 ± 353.2), Hispanic (1213 ± 392.5), African American (1316 ± 299.7), and Asian (1056 ± 339.7).

Conclusions: We found no case of high grade ROP among neonates born to African American women. These neonates had the highest mean gestational age and birth weight at delivery. In contrast, newborns of Asian women had a similar incidence of ROP compared to babies born to non-Hispanic White and Hispanic women, yet had the lowest observed mean birth weight and gestational age at delivery. We show that the incidence of ROP is different amongst racial groups. These interesting observations need further exploration in a larger cohort.