Epidemiologic Information and Associated Factors in Keratoconus
Hamideh Sabbaghi1 *, Sare Safi1 , Mohammad Ali Javadi2 , Hossein Mohammad-Rabei2 , Zahra Khorrami1 , Mohsen Pourazizi3 , Alireza Peyman3 , Leila Ghiasian4 , Javad Sadeghi Allah Abadi5 , Hassan Gharaee5
- Ophthalmic Epidemiology Research Center, Research Institute for Ophthalmology and Vision Science, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Ophthalmic Research Center, Research Institute for Ophthalmology and Vision Science, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Isfahan Eye Research Center, Department of Ophthalmology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
- Eye Research Center, The Five Senses Institute, Rassoul Akram Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Department of Ophthalmology, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract: In the current study, we aimed to determine the epidemiologic information and the most associated factors in keratoconus severity.
Methods: In this cross- sectional study, the health records of patients with different severities of keratoconus who registered in the Iranian National Registry of Keratoconus (KCNReg®) were investigated. Data collection was conducted by different collaborative centers throughout Iran between 2020 and 2023. The epidemiologic information including ethnicity, geographic location of residency, family history, parental consanguinity, occupation, education level, age of disease onset were analysed. Furthermore, other factors related to the patients' daily habits and medical history information such as smoking, eye rubbing, concurrent systemic disease, pregnancy and breast feeding, contact lens usage were reported and also all factors were investigated in association with keratoconus severity.
Results: A total of 970 patients (60.1% male) with the mean age administration of 41.5±13.7 years and age onset of 26.5±9.47 years were studied. An equal percentage of patients were suffered from mild and moderate keratoconus, while only 3.8% of them had severe keratoconus. Most of our cases had Fars ethnicity (37.5%), academic education (56.8%), indoor occupation with prolonged computer usage (97.9%), residency in Tehran province (54.2%), non-parental consanguinity (65.3%), negative family history (66.7%) and atopic disease (10.4%). Additionally, 31.7% of patients wore contact lens with a mean duration of 22.6±57.6 months and 16.7% of our participants had daily smoking. It was found that 77.8% of patients do eye robbing during a day and the most of female patients had no previous pregnancy and breast feeding. Univariate analysis shows that older age of administration (P=0.025, OR: 1.036, CI: 1.004 to 1.068) and younger age of onset (P=0.004, OR: 0.933, CI: 0.890 to 0.979) were associated in manifestation of severe keratoconus compared with mild cases; whereas no significant association was confirmed in multivariate analysis.
Conclusion: Based on our findings, severe forms of keratoconus could be observable in patients with older age which is occurred due to disease progression. Further investigations with data collection from different zones in Iran are recommended in future.
