Abstract
Purpose :
There is lack of national data to compare the distribution of uveitis for the four US regions (northeast, midwest, south and west). We performed a retrospective, observational study to understand the epidemiology of non-infectious uveitis (NIU) and its complications according to the four US regions, income level and the insurance type using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) for the years 2002-2013
Methods :
The NIS is a de-identified, 20% sample of U.S. community hospitals. We used the (ICD-9) codes to identify NIU cases and ocular complications. We collected information on age, sex, race, US regions (northeast, midwest, west and south), income quartile (< $ 38,999, $ 39,000-$ 47,999, $ 48,000-$ 62,999 and > $ 63,000), and ocular complications. Statistical analysis was done using SAS version 9.4. Continuous variables were summarized as mean ± SD and categorical variables as frequencies and percentages. Groups (the four US regions, uveitis patients with and without ocular complications) were compare using chi square and t tests.
Results :
There were a total of 94,143,978, discharges from 2002-2013, out of these 15,296 (.016%) had NIU. Of 22 possible subsets of uveitis, birdshot chorioretinopathy (39.2%) and Behcets (36.7%) were the most common NIU etiologies. For the entire US, NIU patients were younger (mean age 45±18 vs 48±28, p<.0.0001), higher percentage of African American (23 vs 10%, p <.0001) and belong to lowest income < $38,999 (29 vs 26%, p <.001), than the total NIS population. Examining the four US regions separately, NIU patients in all four US regions individually, were more likely to be African American, have the lowest income quartile and insured by Medicaid, (Table 1). NIU patients with ocular complications were younger (43.9 ±17.6 vs 45 ±18) and majority resided in the south (35%, p value: 0.3). Blindness was most frequent in south (43%, p value:0.3) and legal blindness in northeast (33%, p=.001), (Table 2).
Conclusions :
NIU patients with and without ocular complications are younger, African American, have low income and have Medicaid as the primary insurance.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.