Abstract
Purpose: :
Smoking is the most widespread addiction of mankind, which has been indicated as a risk factor for many of disorders including ocular diseases. In this study, we investigated rates of cigarette smoking in patients with uveitis, and intended to define their etiological characteristics.
Methods: :
A total of 202 uveitis patients, who were diagnosed and being followed in the outpatient clinic of Tokyo Medical University Hospital from January 2000 to December 2007, were interviewed about habits of cigarette smoking. The mean age was 46.2± 15.5 years, and 48.5% of patients were male and 51.5% were female. The most frequent diagnosis was Behcet’s disease (16.8%), followed by Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome (VKH) and sarcoidosis (9.9% and 9.9%, respectively). Smoking rates of these uveitis patients were compared with that in total Japanese investigated at 2002 by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and gender, mean age of the disease onset, the causative disease, and the final presenting visual acuity (VA) converted into a logarithm were reviewed. Statistical analyses were conducted using JMP software version 5.
Results: :
Smoking rates were 44.1% in total uveitis patients, 59.2% in the male patients, and 29.8% in the female patients, which were apparently higher than that of total Japanese (24.0%, 43.3%, and 10.2%, respectively). The mean age of the disease onset was significantly lower in uveitis patients with smoking than in uveitis patients without smoking (43.2±1.62 years versus 48.5±1.44 years, P<0.05). Regarding the causative diseases, Behcet’s disease was more observed in uveitis patients with smoking (52.9%), but sarcoidosis and VKH were less (35% and 35%, respectively) compared with those in uveitis patients without smoking. There was not a significant difference in log VA between uveitis patients with and without smoking (-0.26±0.12 versus -0.40±0.62).
Conclusions: :
Rate of smoking was significantly higher in uveitis patients than in total Japanese, and age of the disease onset was statistically earlier in uveitis patients with smoking than in those without smoking.
Keywords: uveitis-clinical/animal model • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: risk factor assessment • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: outcomes/complications