Sudden vision loss and cardiovascular risk factors in African Americans: the Jackson Heart Study

The prevalence and determinants of sudden vision loss (SVL) are unknown in African Americans (AAs). Since SVL can be cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related and CVD is highly prevalent in AAs, we examined the prevalence of and CVD factors related to self-reported SVL lasting 24 hours or longer in the cohort of AAs enrolled in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS).

The study population comprised 5301 participants enrolled from 2000-2004 in the metropolitan area of Jackson, MS, USA. All participants who responded to the question "Have you ever had any sudden loss of vision or blurring, lasting 24 hours or longer?" on the baseline stroke questionnaire were included in the study. We estimated the prevalence of SVL and used regression modeling to identify CVD factors independently related to SVL.

A total of 5262 participants were included, of which 63% (3334/5262) were female. The prevalence of SVL was 3.6% (193/5262) overall (4.4% in females and 2.4% in males), and 8.7% (84/965) in patients with diabetes mellitus. Factors independently related to SVL included coronary heart disease (odds ratio, OR, 1.69, 95% confidence interval, CI, 1.12-2.56), cerebrovascular disease (OR 2.81, 95% CI 1.76-4.47), diabetes (OR 2.85, 95% CI 2.05-3.94), hypertension (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.09-2.45), female sex (OR 1.82, 95% CI 1.24-2.67), and income less than US$50,000 (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.28-3.30).

In this cohort of AAs, self-reported SVL lasting 24 hours or longer was highly prevalent in women and those with diabetes and was independently related to sex, CVD, CVD risk factors and household income.