Impact of Retinopathy and Systemic Vascular Comorbidities on All-Cause Mortality

Abstract

AbstractAims/hypothesisTo investigate the joint effects of retinopathy and systemic vascular comorbidities on mortality.MethodsThis study included 5703 participants (≥40 years old) from the 2005-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study grading scale was used to evaluate the retinopathy status. Systemic vascular comorbidities included diabetes mellitus (DM), high blood pressure (HBP), chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Time to death was calculated as the time from baseline to either the date of death or censoring (December 31st, 2015), whichever came first. Risks of mortality were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models.ResultsAfter adjusting for confounders, the presence of retinopathy predicted higher all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.40; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09-1.81). The all-cause mortality among participants with both retinopathy and systemic vascular comorbidities including DM (HR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.06-2.50), HBP (HR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.03-2.08), CKD (HR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.24-2.35) and CVD (HR, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.19-2.96) was significantly higher than that among those without either condition.Conclusions/interpretationIn this prospective study, individuals with retinopathy had increased all-cause mortality. The joint effects of retinopathy and major systemic vascular comorbidities increased the all-cause mortality further, suggesting that more extensive vascular risk factor assessment and management are needed to detect the burden of vascular pathologies and improve long-term survival in individuals with retinopathy.Research in contextWhat is already known about this subject?Retinopathy has been recognized as an independent risk factor for mortality.What is the key question?What are the joint effects of retinopathy and systemic vascular comorbidities (including diabetes mellitus, hypertension and chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease) on mortality?What are the new findings?Consistent evidence on the increased risk of mortality among individuals with retinopathy was noted in a large sample of middle-aged and older adults.The co-occurrence of retinopathy and systemic vascular conditions (diabetes mellitus, hypertension and chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease) further increased all-cause mortality independent of other covariates.How might this impact on clinical practice in the foreseeable future?Individuals with retinopathy may benefit from a comprehensive vascular assessment.Intensive vascular risk reduction is needed in the management of patients with retinopathy and and micro- or macrovascular disorders.Highlighted the importance of retinopathy screening using retinal imaging for identifying individuals at high risk of mortality, particularly among individuals with systemic vascular comorbidities.