Prevalence of Visual Disability and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Hispanic/Latinos of Diverse Backgrounds: Results from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)

Abstract

Purpose : Chronic eye diseases (CED) share risk factors (RF) with cardiovascular disease (CVD). HCHS/SOL showed marked variation in 5 major CVD RFs (diabetes mellitus-DM, hypertension-HTN, smoking-SM, obesity-OB, hypercholesterolemia-HChl) by Hispanic/Latino group. Estimates of CED in Hispanics/Latinos without considering RF heterogeneity (e.g., only Mexican-Americans) yield inaccurate estimates of disease prevelance. We characterize the prevalence of visual disability and associated CVD RFs in HCHS/SOL.

Methods : Design, Setting and Paritcipants: Multicenter, prospective, population-based HCHS/SOL subjects (n=9663), ≥40y age, completing Visit #2 (2014-2017). Age-adjusted prevalence of visual disability and CVD RFs were calculated weighting for study design. Adverse CVD RFs were defined using national guidelines. Main outcome measure: Age-adjusted prevalence of self-reported visual disability defined by the US Census
Bureau’s American Community Survey definition, “being blind or having serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses.”

Results : 9324 subjects with complete data were analyzed. Sex-specific prevalence of CVD RFs and adverse CVD RF profile varied significantly by Hispanic/Latino group. Visual disability prevalence (%) was higher in men with DM (estimate and 95%CI) 13.4% (10.4-16.4), HTN 11.3% (9.5-13.1), HChl 11.7% (9.8-13.7), OB 11.8% (9.5-14.1) and SM 12.5% (9.1-15.9) versus the overall estimate 10.6% (9.2-12.1). In women, visual disability prevalence was higher with DM 16.1% (13.5-18.8), HTN 15.5% (13.5-17.6), HChl 14.6% (12.3-16.9), OB 13.9% (12.0-15.7) and SM 16.8% (12.6-21.0) versus the overall estimate 13.5% (12.0-14.9). In men, visual disability prevalence was similar with 0-1 adverse CVD RFs [8.0% (3.9-12.1); 7.1% (5.1-9.1)] but increased with 2-3 adverse CVD RFs [10.9% (8.3-13.5); 13.5% (10.8-16.2)]. In women, visual disability prevalence increased with increasing adverse CVD RFs [0 RF, 9.5% (6.5-12.5); 1 RF 11.8% (9.4-14.2); 2 RFs 13.4% (10.8-16.0); 3 RFs 16.7% (14.0-19.5)].

Conclusions : A sizeable burden with marked variation exists for the prevalence of visual disability and adverse CVD RFs in Hispanic/Latinos. Results support SOL Ojos, an ancillary study that leverages HCHS/SOL heterogeneity, to assess CED-CVD risk factor associations in Hispanic/Latinos of diverse backgrounds.

This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.