Abstract
Purpose: :
To examine the prevalence of vision changes during and after pregnancy reported by women with retinitis pigmentosa (RP).
Methods: :
Thirty-four women with self-reported RP retrospectively described changes in vision during and after pregnancy in an anonymous Internet survey. A logistic/multinomial regression analysis determined whether these reported changes were predicted by several factors, such as order of pregnancy and age.
Results: :
Subjects recalled information for a total of 79 pregnancies (μ=2.3;SD=1.4). Mean ages during the 1st (n=34, μ=24.7±5.3), 2nd (n=24, μ=28.4±5.3), and 3 or more (n=21, μ=28.5±4.6) pregnancies were reported. As women get older, they are more likely to report decreases in peripheral vision during (p=0.04) and after (p=0.05) pregnancy. 44% of respondents did not note decreased vision during any pregnancy, 12% noted only a slight decrease across pregnancies, 15% noted no change in vision and then a slight decrease with a later pregnancy, 15% indicated a moderate decrease during at least one pregnancy, and 15% reported a major decrease during at least one pregnancy. Women with RP of similar age were 3.2x more likely to report a slight decrease in vision during their 2nd pregnancy compared to the first (p=0.046), and were 5.4x more likely to report a slight decrease in vision during their 3rd or more pregnancies (p=0.05). A trend for a moderate decrease in vision was reported for women of similar age during their 3rd or later pregnancies (p=0.10). Order of pregnancy did not predict any major changes in vision during pregnancy likely due to small sample size (n=5) reporting major changes. There was a trend indicating that women of similar age during pregnancy are 2.3x more likely to report a decrease in peripheral vision at the 2nd pregnancy (p=0.07) and this increased to 4.9x more likely with 3 or more pregnancies (p=0.006). 47% of the respondents did not get pregnant again after reporting any amount of decreased vision after pregnancy, while only 15% had another pregnancy, and 38% never noted decreased vision after pregnancy. Women of similar age were 4x and 3.2x more likely to report a decrease in peripheral and night vision respectively after 3 or more pregnancies (p=0.003 and p=0.02). No significant relationships emerged for women who breastfed.
Conclusions: :
Women with RP who responded to an Internet survey were more likely to indicate decreased vision during and after pregnancy as their number of pregnancies and age increased. These results illustrate the need to examine nutritional status and the prevalence of vision changes in pregnant women with RP in a prospective study using vision tests.
Keywords: retinal degenerations: hereditary • low vision • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: outcomes/complications