Abstract:
To find the prevalences of self–reported vision impairment from the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 1999–2002) for different races, and to explore the effect of social economic status (SES) on the racial differences in prevalence of self–reported vision impairment in general US population.
A cross–sectional analysis of a probability sample of the US population enrolled in the current NHANES 1999–2002, with a total sample of 8046 participants with complete records. Logistic regression models were fitted in 5 stages to find the most important factors contributing to the racial differences.
The self–reported vision impairment is defined as the "yes" answer to the qustion "Trouble seeing even with glass/contacts". The prevalences of self–reported vision impairment are 16.45%, 21.89%, 21.56%, and 15.17% for non–Hispanic White, non–Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and Asian/others, respectively. The highest prevalence among all groups is 27.88% for Hispanic females. In lower SES strata, with federal poverty level (PFL)<200% and/or less than high school education, all races have increased prevalences at around 25% with no racial differences among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. In higher SES strata, however, Blacks have 44% and Hispanics have 33% more chances of having impaired vision than Whites after controlling for age, gender, diabetes and other covariates (see table below). When education and income were entered into the stage–wise logistic regression models, the racial differences reduced by 23% for Blacks and 37% for Hispanics comparing with Whites, the largest reduction among gender, diabetes, language barrier and other factors.
Prevalences of self–reported vision impairment differed significantly by race/ethnicity. Social economic status (SES) is closely associated with the racial differences in prevalence of vision impairment in our analyses from the current NHANES data.
Keywords: low vision • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence