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Abstract #8130 Published in IGR 4-3
Differences between screening sites in a glaucoma screening program
Ellish NJ; Higginbotham EJOphthalmic Epidemiology 2002; 9: 225-237
OBJECTIVE: To determine the differences in demographic variables, glaucoma risk factors, and visual acuity by type of screening site. METHODS: The authors conducted glaucoma screenings throughout the city of Baltimore. A questionnaire collected information about age, race, and risk factors: having a relative with glaucoma, having diabetes, having a past eye injury or surgery, and not having an eye examination within two years. They also tested visual acuity and visual fields. They categorized screening sites into work places, senior centers, health fairs, and church groups, and created age-race groups by combining age and race categories. RESULTS: This study is based on 1366 people screened at 42 different sites. The majority of people screened were African-American (65%) and female (58%), with a mean age of 48 years. The authors found significant age and race differences between the screening sites. After stratifying by age-race groups, they found statistically significant associations between screening sites and not having a recent eye examination (p = 0.009) and visual acuity (p = 0.001). Health fairs had the largest percentage of people not having a recent eye examination, and senior centers had the largest percentage of people with poor visual acuity. CONCLUSIONS: These data showed differences in age and race between screening sites. After conducting stratified analysis, differences between screening sites and recent eye examinations and visual acuity persisted. These differences in screening sites, as well as objectives of the vision screening, should be considered when planning a screening program to help focus the program on appropriate high-risk subgroups of the population.
N.J. Ellish, MD, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA
Classification:
1.6 Prevention and screening (Part of: 1 General aspects)