Abstract
Purpose :
There is growing evidence that sleep apnea may contribute to non-arteritic optic neuropathy, central serous chorioretinopathy, retinal vein occlusion, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. This cross-sectional study tested the hypothesis that sleep apnea is associated with increased likelihood of poor vision.
Methods :
The study included 6546 men and women aged 40 years and above who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007 - 2008 and responded to both a Sleep Disorder Questionnaire and a Vision Questionnaire. Subjects were coded as having sleep apnea if they responded yes to question SLQ060 (‘‘Have you ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that you have a sleep disorder?”) and reported sleep apnea to question SLQ070A (“What was the sleep disorder?”). Level of vision was coded based on the response to question VIQ031 (“At the present time, would you say your eyesight, with glasses or contact lenses if you wear them is …”). Responses of Excellent, Good, Fair were coded as Good. Responses of Poor and Very Poor were coded as Poor.
Results :
Inclusion criteria were met by 6528 participants who gave gradable responses to both questionnaires. Of these, 302 (4.6%) reported having sleep apnea. 328 (5.0%) reported having poor vision. Of those with sleep apnea, 29 (9.6%) reported poor vision. Of those without known sleep apnea, 299 (4.8%) reported poor vision. This resulted in an odds ratio (OR) of 2.1 (95% confidence interval (CI)
1.41 to 3.14, p = 0.0003).
Conclusions :
In NHANES participants, a diagnosis of sleep apnea was significantly associated with an increased likelihood of perception of poor vision. Causation cannot be inferred from a cross-sectional study. However, the significant association should alert practitioners to increase surveillance of patients with sleep apnea. Prospective studies are needed to determine whether sleep apnea is a cause for pathologies which lead to poor vision.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.