Original articleNine-Year Incidence and Risk Factors for Pterygium in the Barbados Eye Studies
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
The Barbados Eye Studies represent a series of investigations aimed at describing the prevalence, incidence, and risk factors for major eye diseases in the predominantly black population of Barbados, West Indies. The initial Barbados Eye Studies (1988–1992) cohort was a random sample of the nation's adult population, 40 to 84 years of age, with 84% participation. A total of 4631 participants completed their baseline examination, and 93% self-reported their ancestry as being of African-origin.
Results
Of the 2612 BISED II participants of African origin, 2178 (83%) received an ophthalmologic 9-year examination and self-reported their ancestry as black. Of these, 290 participants had pterygium at baseline and were excluded from the analysis. This report is based on the remaining 1888 persons who were free of pterygium at their initial BES visit. The baseline characteristics by gender of those at risk are presented in Table 1. The median age was 56 years, and 60% were female. More than one
Discussion
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first large-scale study to report on the incidence of pterygium in any setting. It also represents the only such investigation in a predominantly African population residing in a tropical climate, where exposure to sunlight with UVB radiation is known to be high. The 9-year incidence of pterygium in this population was approximately 12% or an average of 1.3% per year, suggesting the need for preventive strategies to reduce the development of this
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Cited by (0)
Manuscript no. 2008-307.
Financial Disclosure(s): The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.
Supported by Grants EY07625 and EY07617 from the National Eye Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.
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For group membership, see Leske MC, Wu SY, Hennis A, et al. Nine-year incidence of age related macular degeneration in the Barbados Eye Studies. Ophthalmology 2006;113:29-35.