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Abstract
Objective The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of vitreoretinal interface abnormalities (VRIA), the degree of visual impairment and associations with VRIA among adults, aged 40–69 years, in the UK Biobank study.
Methods and analysis Colour fundus photographs and spectral domain optical coherence tomography images were graded for 25% of the 8359 UK Biobank participants with mild visual impairment or worse (LogMAR >0.3 or Snellen <6/12) in at least one eye. The prevalence and contribution of VRIA to visual impairment was determined and multinomial logistic regression models were used to investigate association with known risk factors and other predetermined socioeconomic, biometric, lifestyle and medical variables for cases and matched controls.
Results The minimum prevalence of any VRIA was 17.6% and 8.1% in the eyes with and without visual impairment, respectively. VRIA were identified as the primary cause of visual impairment in 3.6% of eyes. Although epiretinal membrane and vitreomacular traction were the most common VRIA, the degree of visual impairment was typically milder with these than with other VRIA. Visual impairment with a VRIA was positively associated with increasing age (relative risk ratio (RRR) 1.22 (95% CI 1.07 to 1.40)), female gender (RRR 1.28; 1.08 to 1.52) and Asian or Asian British ethnicity (RRR 1.60; 1.10 to 2.32).
Conclusions VRIA are common in middle-aged adults in the UK Biobank study, especially in eyes with visual impairment. VRIA were considered to be the primary cause of visual impairment in 3.6% of all eyes with visual impairment, although there was variation in the degree of visual impairment for each type of VRIA.
- visual impairment
- visual acuity
- epidemiology
- prevalence
- vitreo-retinal interface abnormality
- risk factors
- disease associations
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Footnotes
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Nicola Dowd, Richard Cannon, Mike Stockton and Grigorios Tzamos for their advice and help with image grading and the creation of the customised grading database.
This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource under Application Number 1100.
Contributors TF and DS have been involved in the study design, data analysis and review of the paper.
The other members of the UK Biobank Eye and Vision Consortium have had the opportunity to review and comment on the data before the manuscript was submitted for publication.
Funding This study was supported as an Investigator Initiated Trial by Alcon Research Ltd.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Patient consent is not required, anonymised data only were made available to me by UK Biobank.
Ethics approval North-West Multicentre Research Ethics Committee.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Collaborators Prof Tariq ASLAM (ManchesterUniversity); Prof Sarah BARMAN (KingstonUniversity); Prof Jenny BARRETT (Universityof Leeds); Prof Paul BISHOP (ManchesterUniversity); Mr Peter BLOWS (MoorfieldsEye Hospital, London); Dr Catey BUNCE (King’sCollege London); Dr Roxana CARARE (Universityof Southampton); ProfUsha CHAKRAVARTHY (Queens University, Belfast); Miss Michelle CHAN (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London); Mrs Antonietta CHIANCA (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology);Dr Valentina CIPRIANI (UCL Institute ofOphthalmology); Prof David CRABB (CityUniversity, London); Mrs PhilippaCUMBERLAND (UCL Institute of Child Health); Dr Alexander DAY (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London); Miss Parul DESAI (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London);Prof Bal DHILLON (University of Edinburgh);Prof Andrew DICK (University of Bristol);Dr Cathy EGAN (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London);Prof Sarah ENNIS (University of Southampton);Prof Paul FOSTER (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology);Dr Marcus FRUTTIGER (UCL Institute ofOphthalmology); Dr John GALLACHER (Universityof Oxford); Prof David (Ted) GARWAY-HEATH(UCL Institute of Ophthalmology); Dr JaneGIBSON (University of Southampton); MrDan GORE (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London); Mr Srini GOVERDHAN (University of Southampton); Prof Jeremy GUGGENHEIM (Cardiff University); Prof Chris HAMMOND (King's College London); Prof Alison HARDCASTLE (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology);Prof Simon HARDING (University of Liverpool);Dr Ruth HOGG (Queen's University, Belfast);Prof Anne HUGHES (Queen's University, Belfast);Dr Pirro HYSI (King's College London); Mr Pearse A KEANE (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology);Prof Sir Peng Tee KHAW (UCL Institute ofOphthalmology); Mr Anthony KHAWAJA (MoorfieldsEye Hospital, London); Mr GerassimosLASCARATOS (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London); Prof Andrew LOTERY- University of Southampton); Prof Phil LUTHERT (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology);Dr Tom MACGILLIVRAY (University of Edinburgh);Dr Sarah MACKIE (University of Leeds); Prof Keith MARTIN (University of Cambridge); Ms Michelle MCGAUGHEY (Queen’s University Belfast);Dr Bernadette MCGUINNESS (Queen’s UniversityBelfast); Dr Gareth MCKAY (Queen'sUniversity Belfast); Mr Martin MCKIBBIN (LeedsTeaching Hospitals NHS Trust); Dr DannyMITRY (University of Edinburgh); ProfTony MOORE (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology); Prof James MORGAN (Cardiff University); Ms Zaynah MUTHY (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology); Mr Eoin O'SULLIVAN (King's College Hospital); Dr Chris OWEN (St George's, University of London);Mr Praveen PATEL (Moorfields Eye Hospital,London); Mr Euan PATERSON (QueensUniversity Belfast); Dr Tunde PETO (Queen'sUniversity Belfast); Dr Axel PETZOLD (UCLInstitute of Neurology); Prof Jugnoo RAHI(UCL Institute of Child Health); DrAlicja RUDNICKA (St George's, University of London); Miss Carlota Grossi SAMPEDRO (University of EastAnglia); Mr Jay SELF (University ofSouthampton); Prof Sobha SIVAPRASAD (MoorfieldsEye Hospital, London); Mr David STEEL (NewcastleUniversity); Mrs Irene STRATTON (GloucestershireHospitals NHS Foundation Trust); MrNicholas STROUTHIDIS (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London); Prof Cathie SUDLOW (University of Edinburgh); Dr Caroline THAUNG (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology);Miss Dhanes THOMAS (Moorfields Eye Hospital,London); Prof Emanuele TRUCCO (Universityof Dundee); Mr Adnan TUFAIL (MoorfieldsEye Hospital, London); Dr Marta UGARTE (MoorfieldsEye Hospital, London); Dr VeroniqueVITART (University of Edinburgh); ProfStephen VERNON (University Hospital, Nottingham); Mr Ananth VISWANATHAN (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London);Miss Cathy WILLIAMS (University of Bristol);Dr Katie WILLIAMS (King's College London);Prof Jayne WOODSIDE (Queen's University Belfast);Prof John YATES (University of Cambridge);Dr Max YATES (University of East Anglia);Ms Jennifer YIP (University of Cambridge);Dr Yalin ZHENG (University of Liverpool);Dr Haogang ZHU (City University, London).