Abstract
Purpose :
The Primary Open-Angle African American Glaucoma Genetics (POAAGG) study recruits the majority of subjects from the ophthalmology clinics at the Scheie Eye Institute and research affiliates; however, “outreach” and “in-reach” screening events are used as supplemental methods. The purpose of this study is to describe and compare the characteristics of patients who attended these screening events.
Methods :
The POAAGG study is a 5-year project that investigates the genetic and other risk factors that underlie primary open-angle glaucoma in African Americans. POAAGG patients must be ≥35 years, provide a DNA sample, and meet ophthalmic eligibility criteria. Outreach events were held at health fairs, churches, and senior living facilities in Philadelphia. In-reach patients were self-referred to the Scheie Eye Institute from study publicity on public transportation systems, African American talk radio and newspapers, church ministers, and government officials. All participants provided family and personal history of glaucoma, history of diabetes, and hypertension. A complete suite of glaucoma equipment was utilized at both outreach and in-reach events to allow deep endo-phenotyping of patients by glaucoma specialists to determine eligibility for study enrollment and status as case, control, or suspect.
Results :
Among the 185 patients attending outreach screening events, the mean age was 59.9 similar to the mean age of 53.1 for the 41 patients attending in-reach events. The proportion of male patients was lower at outreach events than at in-reach events (34.6% vs. 58.5%; p=0.007; Figure 1). There were similar proportions in the outreach and in-reach groups of self-reported family history of glaucoma (30.8% vs. 43.9%), self-reported history of glaucoma (4.9% vs. 9.8%), history of diabetes (21.1% vs. 12.1%), and history of hypertension (52.4% vs.46.3%) (Figure 1). A lower proportion (57.3%) from the outreach screenings met criteria for enrollment in POAAGG than the in-reach group (92.7%; p<0.001).
Conclusions :
Patients who presented to outreach and in-reach events were generally similar with respect to history of glaucoma and diagnoses of diabetes and hypertension. However, outreach patients were less likely to be eligible for POAAGG than in-reach patients.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.