Abstract
Purpose :
The majority of Guyanese Americans live in the metropolitan New York City area. Prompted by anecdotal evidence of a higher rate of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), we set out to determine the risk of POAG and closed-angle glaucoma (CAG) among Guyanese patients compared to other racial and ethnic groups seen at a major hospital system in the Bronx.
Methods :
Unique medical record numbers of patients (age ≥ 40) across all comprehensive and subspecialties at the Montefiore ophthalmology department were obtained for patients whose country of origin was Guyana as well as self-identified White, Black, and Hispanic patients from 2018-2020. Glaucoma-related ICD-10 diagnostic codes associated with each unique MRN were fitted to a logistic regression and the odds ratios of POAG and CAG for Guyanese patients, adjusting for age and sex, were calculated.
Results :
A total of 409 Guyanese, 2787 White, 13,655 Black, and 13,713 Hispanic patients were included in this study. The mean±SD ages for each population were: 64.1±11.1 years in Guyanese, 67.8±12.9 years in Whites, 64.4±12.3 years in Hispanics, and 64.9±12.2 years in Blacks. For POAG, there were 37 (9.0%) cases in Guyanese patients, 145 (5.2%) cases in Whites, 910 (6.6%) cases in Hispanics, and 1725 (12.6%) cases in Blacks. After adjusting for age and sex, POAG was more common in Guyanese than in Whites (OR=2.38, 95% CI=1.62-3.50, p<0.01) and Hispanics (OR=1.39, 95% CI=0.98-1.98, p=0.07), but less common than in Blacks (OR=0.67, 95% CI=0.47-0.95, p=0.02). For CAG, there were 5 (1.2%) cases in Guyanese patients, 14 (0.5%) cases in Whites, 113 (0.8%) cases in Hispanics, and 116 (0.8%) cases in Blacks. Adjusting for age and sex, CAG was more common in Guyanese patients than in Whites (OR=3.07, 95% CI=0.99-8.12, p=0.03), while the odds ratios were not significantly different compared to the Hispanic and Black populations. Although males had significantly higher odds of both POAG and CAG, there was no heterogeneity by sex on the association between race and these glaucoma types.
Conclusions :
Patients from Guyana had higher odds of POAG versus the White and Hispanic groups as well as higher odds of developing CAG compared to the White patients in our sample. These results may suggest that Guyanese patients should be referred for full eye exams to screen for glaucoma.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.