Ethnic and Socioeconomic Factors Associated with Locally Advanced Retinoblastoma at a Single Center: A Retrospective Study from 1999-2021.

Abstract

Purpose : Retinoblastoma provides an important opportunity to assess how racial and socioeconomic disparities in health care access may affect the timely diagnosis and treatment of a life-threatening disease

Methods : Patients with retinoblastoma treated at a single institution from 1999-2021 were retrospectively reviewed with respect to ethnicity, ZIP code and IIRC Grouping. Socioeconomic disadvantage (SED) score was assigned based on census data from each ZIP code. The SED score is an index variable for each US zip code constructed from census data of poverty level, unemployment, female-headed families, and households receiving public assistance income (Mendez et al). Univariate logistic regression was performed using SPSS 29 (IBM, Armonk NY) to analyze the probability of locally advanced retinoblastoma with respect to ethnicity and SED score. Advanced retinoblastoma was defined as Group E disease in at least one eye

Results : Of 431 patients, 182 presented with Group E disease in at least one eye. Locally advanced retinoblastoma was positively correlated with non-Caucasian ethnicity (OR= 1.49, 95% CI 1.006-2.218). SED score demonstrated a positive trend with advanced disease but did not reach statistical significance (OR= 4.78, 95% CI 0.529-43.072).

Conclusions : Both non-Caucasian ethnicity and SED score were positively correlated with locally advanced retinoblastoma (though ethnicity was a more robust predictor). Further investigation is needed on how to better facilitate early diagnosis of this disease and access to care in vulnerable populations.

This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.