Association of Neighborhood Environment with the Outcomes of Childhood Glaucoma.

PURPOSE: To determine the association between different neighborhood environment factors and the outcomes of childhood glaucoma. DESIGN: A retrospective cohort. PARTICIPANTS: Childhood glaucoma patients ≤ 18 years of age at the time of diagnosis. METHODS: A retrospective chart review of childhood glaucoma patients who presented to Boston Children's Hospital between 2014 and 2019. Data collected included etiology, intraocular pressure (IOP), management, and visual outcomes. Child Opportunity Index (COI) was used as a metric of neighborhood quality. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: The association of visual acuity (VA) and IOP with COI scores using linear mixed-effect models, adjusting for individual demographics. RESULTS: A total of 221 eyes (149 patients) were included. Of these, 54.36% were male and 56.4% were non-Hispanic Whites. The median age at the time of presentation was 5 months for primary glaucoma and 5 years for secondary glaucoma. The median age at the last follow-up was 6 and 13 years for primary and secondary glaucoma, respectively. A chi-square test revealed that the COI, health and environment, social and economic, and education indexes between primary and secondary glaucoma patients were comparable. For primary glaucoma, the overall COI and a higher education index were associated with a lower final IOP (P < 0.05), and higher education index was associated with a lower number of glaucoma medications at the last follow-up (P < 0.05). For secondary glaucoma, higher overall COI, health and environment, social and economic, and education indices were associated with better final VA (lower logarithms of the minimum angle of resolution VA) (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Neighborhood environment quality is a potentially important variable for predicting outcomes in childhood glaucoma. Lower COI scores were associated with worse outcomes. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE(S): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.

Association of Neighborhood Child Opportunity Index with presenting visual acuity in amblyopic children.

PURPOSE: To demonstrate the use of a novel measure of neighborhood quality, the Child Opportunity Index (COI), for investigating health disparities in pediatric ophthalmology. METHODS: This study included children 2-12 years of age from a registry of patients diagnosed with amblyopia at an urban pediatric hospital between 2010 and 2014. Children previously treated for amblyopia were excluded. Patient demographics, residential addresses, and logMAR visual acuities were collected. The association between visual acuity at presentation and COI was examined using linear mixed-effects models adjusting for individual-level factors, including age, sex, race, ethnicity, and insurance type. RESULTS: This study included 1,050 amblyopic children, of whom 317 (37%) were non-White and 149 (19%) were Hispanic; 461 (44%) had public insurance. Regarding residence, 129 (12%) lived in areas of very low opportunity (COI <20); 489 (47%) in areas of very high opportunity (COI ≥80). Children residing in the lowest opportunity neighborhoods correctly identified approximately two fewer letters at presentation with their better-seeing eye compared with children from the highest opportunity neighborhoods after adjusting for individual-level factors (-0.0090 logMAR per 20 unit increase in COI; 95% CI, -0.0172 to -0.0008; P = 0.031). No difference was appreciated in the worse-seeing eye. CONCLUSIONS: Amblyopic children residing in communities with low neighborhood opportunity had slightly worse visual acuity in the better-seeing eye at presentation. Although statistically significant in the better-seeing eye, the two-letter difference attributable to neighborhood environment may not be clinically significant, and the impact of this disparity on treatment outcomes deserves further investigation.

Association of Race, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status With Visual Impairment in Adolescent Children in the US.

Importance: Although racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in visual impairment have been described in adults, few studies have focused on the adolescent population, which may provide insight into the emergence of vision health inequities. Objective: To describe visual health disparities among adolescent children in the US. Design, Setting, and Participants: This was a cross-sectional study of adolescents from the 2005 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were aged 12 to 18 years with a completed visual function questionnaire and eye examination. Data analyses were conducted from January 19 to July 20, 2022. Main Outcomes and Measures: Outcomes included subjective (self-reported poor vision) and objective (visual acuity worse than 20/40 in the better-seeing eye) measures of visual function. Multivariable logistic and linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between the sociodemographic risk factors and each outcome, adjusting for age, sex, and other covariates. Results: The 2833 included participants (mean [SD] age, 15.5 [2.0] years; 1407 female participants [49%]) represent a survey-weighted 57 million US adolescent children, of whom 14% were non-Hispanic Black participants (876), 11% were Mexican American participants (828), 63% were non-Hispanic White participants (816), and 11% were other race and ethnicity (313). A total of 5% of participants (266) were not US citizens, and 19% (773) had a family income below the poverty threshold. There were increased odds of self-reported poor vision among Black (odds ratio [OR], 2.85; 95% CI, 2.00-4.05; P < .001), Mexican American (OR, 2.83; 95% CI, 1.70-4.73; P < .001), and low-income (OR, 2.44; 95% CI, 1.63-3.65; P < .001) adolescent children. Similarly, there were increased odds of visual acuity worse than 20/40 in the better-seeing eye among Black (OR, 2.13; 95% CI, 1.41-3.24; P = .001), Mexican American (OR, 2.13; 95% CI, 1.39-3.26; P = .001), and non-US citizen (OR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.10-3.49; P = .02) participants. Conclusions and Relevance: In this nationally representative sample from 2005 to 2008, adolescent children identifying as Black, Mexican American, low-income, or non-US citizen were more likely to report poor subjective visual function and perform worse on objective visual acuity testing. A greater understanding of the underlying etiology of these disparities may yield opportunities for improving vision at the population level.