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. 2022 Dec 5;19(23):16296.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192316296.

The Presence of Ankylosing Spondylitis and the Incidence of Subsequent External Eye Diseases: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Chia-Yi Lee  1   2   3 , Hung-Chi Chen  4   5   6 , Jing-Yang Huang  7 , Chieh-Hung Yen  3   4   5   8 , Yih-Shiou Hwang  4   5 , Chao-Kai Chang  2   9 , Shun-Fa Yang  1   7
Affiliations

The Presence of Ankylosing Spondylitis and the Incidence of Subsequent External Eye Diseases: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Chia-Yi Lee et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

We aimed to survey the risk of external eye diseases in those with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) via the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan. We conducted a retrospective cohort study, and subjects diagnosed with AS were selected from the NHIRD. Then, the AS patients were matched 1:1 by propensity-score matching (PSM) to non-AS patients, and a total of 6754 participants were included in the AS and non-AS groups. The main outcomes were regarded as the occurrence of dry eye disease (DED), superficial keratopathy and corneal ulcers. We used Cox proportional hazard regression to yield the adjusted hazard ratios (AHR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) between the AS and non-AS groups. There were 709 and 408 external eye disease events that occurred in the AS and non-AS groups after a tracking interval of up to 17 years. The incidence of all external eye diseases was significantly higher in the AS group than the non-AS group (AHR: 1.826, 95% CI: 1.616−2.063, p < 0.0001). Additionally, the rates of DED (AHR: 1.973, 95% CI: 1.701−2.290, p < 0.0001) and superficial keratopathy (AHR: 1.593, 95% CI: 1.347−1.883, p < 0.0001) were significantly higher in the AS group than the non-AS group. In the sub-group analyses, the possibility of any external eye disease (p = 0.0030) and DED (p = 0.0386) was decreased in the older age group compared to those in the middle-aged group. In conclusion, AS is significantly correlated to subsequent external eye diseases, mainly the DED and superficial keratopathy.

Keywords: ankylosing spondylitis; dry eye disease; inflammation; keratopathy; population-based.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The flowchart of participant selection. N: number, AS: ankylosing spondylitis, PSM: propensity score-matching.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The cumulative incidence of external eye diseases between the ankylosing spondylitis and control groups. (A) The cumulative incidence of all external eye diseases. (B) The cumulative incidence of dry eye disease. (C) The cumulative incidence of superficial keratopathy. (D) The cumulative incidence of corneal ulcers. * denotes significant difference between groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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