Distribution of pediatric keratoconus by different age and gender groups.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the distribution of pediatric keratoconus patients and the disease severity based on different age and gender groups in China.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 446 keratoconus eyes in 266 pediatric patients from January 2019 to January 2022 were included in the cross-sectional study. The clinical findings and severity of keratoconus were recorded and Kruskal-Wallis test, chi-squared test, and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) test were used to compare the parameters between different gender and age groups.

RESULTS

The male/female ratio was 353/93 (3.8:1), and the median age was 16 years (range: 6-17 years). Male patients were statistically younger than female patients ( = 0.041). The male/female ratio decreased with age ( for trend = 0.011). The distribution of the topographic keratoconus classification (TKC) stage was significantly different between gender and age groups (all < 0.05). Male patients had a higher ratio of advanced keratoconus eyes (TKC ≥ 3) than female patients ( < 0.001), and CMH analysis indicated that being a male was a risk factor for advanced keratoconus after controlling for age (odds ratio: 2.581, < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Male keratoconus patients were younger, with a higher ratio of advanced keratoconus than female patients in the Chinese pediatric patients evaluated. Multicenter studies with larger sample sizes are necessary in the future.