Abstract
Purpose :
To increase our understanding of the burden of dry eye disease (DED), which affects millions of Americans, this study was designed to evaluate the health-related quality of life, work loss, activity impairment, and healthcare resource utilization in participants with DED.
Methods :
Data were obtained from the 2013 National Health and Wellness Survey, a self-administered internet-based questionnaire completed by adults aged ≥18 years. Participants were asked if they ever experienced dry eye or had been diagnosed with dry eye by a physician. Differences in outcomes between 3 groups were assessed: Diagnosed DED, Symptomatic-undiagnosed (undiagnosed but experienced DED symptoms), and Non-DED (no DED diagnosis or symptoms). Outcomes assessed included, components of the Short Form (SF)-36 health survey (mental component summary [MCS], physical component summary [PCS], and SF-6 Dimension [SF-6D] health utility index), work loss and activity impairment, and healthcare resource use measured by traditional provider visits. Following bivariate analyses to prioritize variables, multivariable regression models were used to estimate adjusted group effects (95% CIs) relative to the Non-DED group for each outcome, controlling for age, sex, insurance type, socio-demographic and lifestyle factors, and 14 comorbid conditions.
Results :
The total sample size was N=74,095, of whom N=5,042 were Diagnosed with DED, N=1,785 were Symptomatic-undiagnosed, and N=67,268 denied a DED diagnosis or symptoms. After multivariable adjustment, we observed statistically significantly worse outcomes for the 2 DED groups versus the Non-DED group for each measure (each P<0.0001). Participants in the Diagnosed DED group had the worst outcome for PCS, while the Symptomatic-undiagnosed group had the worst outcomes for both MCS and SF-6D (Table 1). In assessment of overall work loss and activity impairment, the Diagnosed group had the worst outcomes (Table 2). The Diagnosed group also reported the greatest number of visits to medical providers (Table 2).
Conclusions :
This study of 74,095 Americans demonstrates that DED (Diagnosed or Symptomatic-undiagnosed) is associated with lower health-related quality of life, greater work loss and activity impairment, and more visits to medical providers, reinforcing the public health significance of DED.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.