Abstract
Purpose: :
Previous studies show a higher prevalence of glaucoma in the African Caribbean (AC) population compared with the African American (AA) population. This study was designed to determine whether a difference exists in the rates of positive glaucoma screening between the AC and the AA populations in Brooklyn.
Methods: :
209 subjects participated voluntarily in 6 community health fairs conducted in Brooklyn, New York during the year of 2005. Questionnaires assessed various glaucoma risk factors (history of diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension, family history of glaucoma, previous eye injury or surgery, change in vision within the last year, age over 45, being of African descent) and participants underwent C20–1 frequency doubling technology (FDT) visual field testing. Subjects were classified as "screen positive" for glaucoma if they had an abnormal FDT and/or presence of four or more risk factors. Individuals of African descent were further stratified as AC or AA. The rate of positive glaucoma screening among these variables was analyzed using the Pearson chi–square test.
Results: :
166 participants identified themselves as of African descent. Of those, 133 were self reported as African Caribbean and 33 as African American. There was no statistical difference between the two groups in terms of overall positive glaucoma screening (AC = 50.4% versus AA = 63.6%, p = 0.172), including analyzing FDT alone (AC = 88%, AA = 93.9%, p = 0.324) and four or more risk factors alone (AC = 23.9% versus AA = 36.4%, p = 0.553). In addition, in this Brooklyn population, there was no statistically significant difference in the demographics between the AA and the AC groups.
Conclusions: :
The present study did not show a statistically significant difference in the positivity of glaucoma screening among African Caribbean and African American population in Brooklyn, in contrast to previous epidemiologic studies.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: risk factor assessment • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: biostatistics/epidemiology methodology