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Association of sunlight exposure with visual impairment in an Indian fishing community

PURPOSE: Indian fishermen belong to a marginalized population and are continuously exposed to extreme occupational hazards and sunlight. A high prevalence of visual impairment (VI) is reported in the coastal fishing community. We aimed to investigate the association between VI and sunlight exposure...

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Autores principales: Puthran, Shwetha V, Biswas, Sayantan, Karthikeyan, Siddharth K, Thomas, Jyothi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10417968/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37322650
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/ijo.IJO_2088_22
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author Puthran, Shwetha V
Biswas, Sayantan
Karthikeyan, Siddharth K
Thomas, Jyothi
author_facet Puthran, Shwetha V
Biswas, Sayantan
Karthikeyan, Siddharth K
Thomas, Jyothi
author_sort Puthran, Shwetha V
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: Indian fishermen belong to a marginalized population and are continuously exposed to extreme occupational hazards and sunlight. A high prevalence of visual impairment (VI) is reported in the coastal fishing community. We aimed to investigate the association between VI and sunlight exposure measurement (SEM). METHODS: In this cross-sectional observational study, 270 eyes of 135 participants were enrolled from a coastal fishing village. Participants underwent a comprehensive ophthalmic examination, which included best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and anterior and posterior segment examination. Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and SEM questionnaire were administered to estimate the level of dry eye and ultraviolet-B (UV-B) exposure, respectively. VI was defined as presenting visual acuity worse than 6/12 (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution [logMAR] > 0.3). RESULTS: The mean age and spherical equivalent were 50.56 ± 11.72 years (range: 18–80 years) and 0.36 ± 1.68 diopters (D) (range: -7.0 to +3.0 D), respectively. Age, SEM, OSDI, fishing as an occupation, and cataract were significantly associated with higher odds of VI in univariate analysis. Refraction, gender, education level, smoking status, amblyopia, systematic, and other ocular diseases were not significantly associated with VI. In the multivariate analysis, age, SEM, and presence of cataract remained significantly associated with a higher risk for VI. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values for age and SEM scores demonstrate a fair index of discrimination for the detection of VI. CONCLUSION: SEM level is directly associated with a higher risk of VI among fishermen. The fishing community might benefit from regular eye examinations and awareness about the harmful effects of sunlight exposure and preventive measures.
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spelling pubmed-104179682023-08-12 Association of sunlight exposure with visual impairment in an Indian fishing community Puthran, Shwetha V Biswas, Sayantan Karthikeyan, Siddharth K Thomas, Jyothi Indian J Ophthalmol Original Article PURPOSE: Indian fishermen belong to a marginalized population and are continuously exposed to extreme occupational hazards and sunlight. A high prevalence of visual impairment (VI) is reported in the coastal fishing community. We aimed to investigate the association between VI and sunlight exposure measurement (SEM). METHODS: In this cross-sectional observational study, 270 eyes of 135 participants were enrolled from a coastal fishing village. Participants underwent a comprehensive ophthalmic examination, which included best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and anterior and posterior segment examination. Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and SEM questionnaire were administered to estimate the level of dry eye and ultraviolet-B (UV-B) exposure, respectively. VI was defined as presenting visual acuity worse than 6/12 (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution [logMAR] > 0.3). RESULTS: The mean age and spherical equivalent were 50.56 ± 11.72 years (range: 18–80 years) and 0.36 ± 1.68 diopters (D) (range: -7.0 to +3.0 D), respectively. Age, SEM, OSDI, fishing as an occupation, and cataract were significantly associated with higher odds of VI in univariate analysis. Refraction, gender, education level, smoking status, amblyopia, systematic, and other ocular diseases were not significantly associated with VI. In the multivariate analysis, age, SEM, and presence of cataract remained significantly associated with a higher risk for VI. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values for age and SEM scores demonstrate a fair index of discrimination for the detection of VI. CONCLUSION: SEM level is directly associated with a higher risk of VI among fishermen. The fishing community might benefit from regular eye examinations and awareness about the harmful effects of sunlight exposure and preventive measures. Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 2023-06 2023-06-14 /pmc/articles/PMC10417968/ /pubmed/37322650 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/ijo.IJO_2088_22 Text en Copyright: © 2023 Indian Journal of Ophthalmology https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
spellingShingle Original Article
Puthran, Shwetha V
Biswas, Sayantan
Karthikeyan, Siddharth K
Thomas, Jyothi
Association of sunlight exposure with visual impairment in an Indian fishing community
title Association of sunlight exposure with visual impairment in an Indian fishing community
title_full Association of sunlight exposure with visual impairment in an Indian fishing community
title_fullStr Association of sunlight exposure with visual impairment in an Indian fishing community
title_full_unstemmed Association of sunlight exposure with visual impairment in an Indian fishing community
title_short Association of sunlight exposure with visual impairment in an Indian fishing community
title_sort association of sunlight exposure with visual impairment in an indian fishing community
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10417968/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37322650
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/ijo.IJO_2088_22
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