Greater odds for visual impairment found in Black patients with intracranial hypertension
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SEATTLE — Black patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension, or IIH, have greater odds of developing visual impairment, according to research presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting.
Noor Chahal, BS, told Healio that previous research found that Black patients had odds ratios as high as 3.5 to 4.8 in both eyes.
“This was done in 2008, and we wanted to use a newer sample,” he said.
Researchers used data from the 2020 Nationwide Inpatient Sample to determine if factors such as gender, age, race and primary insurance had a relationship with visual impairment in patients with IIH.
Researchers included 29,309 patients with a diagnosis of IIH in their analysis. Of those, 1,378 (4.7%) developed visual impairment.
Among these patients with visual impairment, 1,051 (76.3%) were women, 650 (47.2%) were white and 526 (38.2%) had private insurance.
However, Black patients had higher odds of developing visual impairment compared with white patients (OR = 1.72; P < .001).
“A 72% chance of developing visual impairment just in Black patients is not something we should ignore,” Chahal said. “We need to uncover what’s contributing to this number.”
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Chahal N, et al. Racial disparities in the development of visual impairment in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension. Presented at: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting; May 5-9, 2024; Seattle.
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