Bascom Palmer. US: Physicians at the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute
and medical students at the Miller School of Medicine have been the
first to publish data on the prevalence of glaucoma in the
Haitian-American population. Their findings, based on data from 750
participants, show that nearly 26 percent of Haitian-Americans have
signs and symptoms for various stages of glaucoma.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide,
disproportionately affecting African Americans and Latinos living in the
U.S. A disease characterized by slowly progressive optic nerve
atrophy, glaucoma is typically a painless and silent blinding disease
that can be easily screened for in a community setting and treated to
prevent further vision loss and blindness.
Richard K. Lee, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of ophthalmology,
cell biology and neuroscience, and Richard K. Parrish, II, M.D.,
professor and Edward W.D. Norton Chair of Ophthalmology, led the study
with medical student Christine Bokman and members of the Ophthalmology
Interest Club. “Glaucoma Screening in the Haitian Afro-Caribbean
Population of South Florida” is published in a recent issue of PLOS ONE.
Using data from community health screenings in Little Haiti, the
team found that not only do older patients suffer from signs of the
disease, but also younger patients less than 40 years old have disease
warning signs such as high eye pressures and suspicious changes to the
optic disc. Of the entire study population, 32 percent had eye pressures
above normal (>22 mm Hg), which can ultimately cause severe damage
to the eye and lead to blindness.
To improve ophthalmic care, several efforts were made during and
after the study to provide counseling and follow-up for this population
to help decrease disease progression. Participants were given referrals
with their test results for follow-up with their primary care providers
and recommended ophthalmologists within the community, regardless of
insurance status.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force does not recommend for or
against screening for glaucoma, but Lee says these findings should start
that shift. “Overall, this study highlights the need to create
awareness of differential glaucoma risk within ethnic communities of the
U.S. to prevent further eye disease and blindness,” said Lee. “This
study along with previously published studies on the rates of glaucoma
in specific populations stresses the need for targeted screening within
communities and has implications for policy changes in the approach for
ocular disease screening to prevent blindness.”
Louis Pasquale, M.D., from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear
Infirmary/Harvard Medical School, was a collaborator in the data
analysis. Project Medishare and the Bernard Mevs Hospital Eye Clinic,
where Lee is volunteer medical director, will translate these findings
to be more aggressive in screening for and treating glaucoma in the
Haitian population in Port-Au-Prince.