Prevalence of pediatric eye disease in the optumlabs data warehouse
Stacy L. Pineles, Michael X. Repka, Federico G. Velez, Fei Yu, Claudia Perez, Danielle Sim, Anne L. Coleman
Abstract
PURPOSE: To define the prevalence of medical eye disease diagnoses among children enrolled in commercial insurance plans in the United States and to evaluate differences among groups based on the US census region, race/ethnicity, and familial net worth. METHODS: : Retrospective study of de-identified claims data from the OptumLab® Data Warehouse (OLDW) between 2007 and 2018. All children (<19 years) in the OLDW with coverage were studied and those with a claim for a significant eye disease (strabismus, amblyopia, nystagmus or structural eye disorders) with minimum 6-months follow-up were studied. Baseline characteristics were extracted for the calculation of eye disease prevalence, including age, sex, race/ethnicity, region of residence, and family net worth. The prevalence of each type of eye disease was calculated among all children and by baseline characteristics. RESULTS: > .001). CONCLUSION: : Diagnosis of significant eye diseases is relatively common in American children. The most common medical eye disease diagnosis is strabismus. Prevalence of eye disease diagnosis from claims data varies between geographical regions and different income groups. This may reflect differences in healthcare utilization rather than true disease prevalence.