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Markedly decreasing incidence of cause-specific blindness in Saxony (Eastern Germany)

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Abstract

Purpose

To analyze the recent time trend in Saxony.

Methods

Data were based on administrative files in Saxony (Eastern Germany) to assess recipients of blindness allowance newly registered between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2017. We estimated age–sex standardized incidence of all-cause and cause-specific blindness and used Poisson regression to examine age- and sex-adjusted time trends.

Results

We identified 5114 new cases of blindness (63.3% female, 59.9% ≥ 80 years). We observed a markedly decrease in incidence of blindness: all-causes 2009: 15.7 per 100,000 person years [95% confidence interval: 14.6–17.0]; 2017: 8.9 [8.1–9.8]; age-related macular degeneration 2009: 6.9 [6.1–7.7], 2017: 3.8 [3.3–4.3]; glaucoma 2009: 2.6 [2.2–3.1], 2017: 1.8 [1.4–2.2]; diabetic retinopathy 2009: 1.5 [1.2–1.9], 2017: 0.7 [0.5–1.0]; myopia 2009: 0.7 [0.5–1.1], 2017: 0.4 [0.2–0.5]; optic atrophy 2009: 0.9 [0.6–1.2], 2017: 0.5 [0.3–0.7]; and cataract 2009: 0.5 [0.3–0.8], 2017: 0.1 [0.1–0.3]. The annual reduction was between 5 (glaucoma, relative risk 0.95 [0.92–0.98]) and 16% (cataract, relative risk 0.84 [0.78–0.91]).

Conclusion

The age- and sex-standardized incidence of blindness decreased among all common causes of blindness in Saxony in the last decade.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of the municipal social association of Saxony.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank André Reichenbächer and Jürgen Bochmann (Municipal social association, Saxony) for their support in collecting the data. We also thank Jeremy Groves for editing the paper and revising the English language used in this manuscript. We also thank Dr. Veronika Gontscharuk for giving us statistical advice.

Funding

This study was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Health (grant number 2516DIA001). The funding organization had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Health Services Research and Health Economics, German Diabetes Centre, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heiner Claessen, Tatjana Kvitkina, Maria Narres & Andrea Icks

  2. Institute for Health Services Research and Health Economics, Centre for Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heiner Claessen, Tatjana Kvitkina, Maria Narres & Andrea Icks

  3. German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Munich-Neuherberg, Germany

    Heiner Claessen, Tatjana Kvitkina, Maria Narres & Andrea Icks

  4. Medicine Science Consulting, Berlin, Germany

    Christoph Trautner

  5. Ophthalmologic Office, Aachen, Germany

    Bernd Bertram

Authors
  1. Heiner Claessen
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  2. Tatjana Kvitkina
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Contributions

Icks and Trautner designed the study and co-drafted the first version of the report. Claessen and Kvitkina collected and provided data. Kvitkina, Claessen, and Narres contributed to overall coordination and data collection. Claessen, Kvitkina, Narres, and Bertram analyzed and interpreted the findings and drafted the first version of the report. All authors revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content and gave their final approval of the version to be published. All authors certify that the manuscript represents valid work and that neither the submitted manuscript nor one with substantially similar content under their authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heiner Claessen.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki for research involving human subjects and the good epidemiological practice guideline. Since official secondary data were analyzed, no ethical statement was needed.

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Claessen, H., Kvitkina, T., Narres, M. et al. Markedly decreasing incidence of cause-specific blindness in Saxony (Eastern Germany). Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 259, 1089–1101 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-020-04885-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-020-04885-4

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