Abstract
Purpose :
To assess prevalence and associations of dry eye feeling in a Russian population.
Methods :
The population-based Ural Eye and Medical Study was carried out in a rural and an urban area in the region of Ufa / Bashkortostan 1400 km East of Moscow. Out of 7328 eligible individuals aged 40+ years, 5,899 (80.5%) individuals participated and underwent an ocular and general examination. Dry eye was assessed in a standardized questionnaire including questions on the frequency of dry eye feeling, foreign body feeling, burning sensation, red eye appearance, and presence of lid crusts in the morning.
Results :
Examination data were available for a randomized subset of 5361 (90.9%) individuals. Mean prevalence of “rarely or sometimes feeling dry eyes” was 854/5361 or 15.9% (95% confidence interval (CI):15.0,16.9) and of “frequently or always feeling dry eyes” was 172/5361 or 3.2% (95%CI:2.7,3.7). It was significantly more frequent in women than in men (23.1% (95%CI:21.5,24.6) versus 14.5% (95%CI:13.1,15.9;P<0.001). In multivariate analysis, severity of dry eye feeling increased with female gender (P<0.001; standardized regression beta: 0.12; non-standardized regression coefficient B: 0.11; 95%CI: 0.09, 0.14), urban region of habitation (P<0.001; beta: -0.08; B: -0.08; 95%CI:-0.11,-0.06) and younger age (P=0.01; beta: -0.03; B: -0.002; 95%CI:-0.003, 0.000), while axial length (P=0.08; beta: 0.03) and prevalence of diabetes mellitus (P=0.17; beta: 0.02) and arterial hypertension (P=0.26; beta: -0.02) were not significantly associated with dry eye feeling in that model.
Conclusions :
The prevalence of dry eye feeling in this urban and rural population from Russia with an age of 40+ years was 23.1% (95%CI:21.5,24.6) in women versus 14.5% (95%CI:13.1,15.9) in men. It was associated with urban versus rural region of habitation and younger age.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.