The University of Vermont-Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont, USA.
Legacy Devers Eye Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA.
Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2024 Aug 1;13(8):34. doi: 10.1167/tvst.13.8.34.
Inflammatory and infectious eye diseases are an important cause of visual impairment in patients older than 65 years of age. Health care disparities for eye care are present for general eye care. However, there is lack of national data on health disparities regarding eye care use for inflammatory and infectious eye diseases. Our study examines the effect of gender and race on eye care in patients with inflammatory and infectious eye diseases who are equal or greater than 65 years of age.
We have used Medicare data to examine the effect gender and race on use of eye care services in patients with inflammatory and infectious eye diseases for 2014 to 2018. Medicare is a national insurance program administered by the government of United States to insure people age 65 years or older. Owing to its high enrollment, those in Medicare are representative of the U.S. population aged 65 and older.
We found that females have higher use for Medicare for inflammatory and infectious eye diseases across all races from 2014 to 2018. On examining the effect of race, African Americans have lower use as compared with Whites. People of Asian descent have the highest use, followed by Hispanic people.
Health care disparities exist for eye care use for inflammatory and infectious eye diseases for patients 65 years of age and older. Future studies are required to address these disparities to provide equitable eye care.
Identification of eye care disparities is the first step to addressing these disparities.
炎症和感染性眼病是导致 65 岁以上患者视力损害的重要原因。一般眼部护理存在眼部护理保健差异。然而，关于炎症和感染性眼部疾病的眼部护理使用情况，缺乏针对保健差异的国家数据。我们的研究考察了性别和种族对 65 岁及以上炎症和感染性眼部疾病患者眼部护理的影响。
我们使用医疗保险数据，检查 2014 年至 2018 年期间，性别和种族对炎症和感染性眼部疾病患者眼部护理服务使用的影响。医疗保险是美国政府管理的一项国家保险计划，为 65 岁及以上的人提供保险。由于其高参保率，参保者代表了美国 65 岁及以上的人口。
我们发现，在 2014 年至 2018 年期间，所有种族的女性在炎症和感染性眼部疾病方面对医疗保险的使用率均高于男性。在考察种族的影响时，与白人相比，非裔美国人的使用率较低。亚洲裔美国人的使用率最高，其次是西班牙裔。
对于 65 岁及以上患者的炎症和感染性眼部疾病的眼部护理使用存在保健差异。需要进一步研究来解决这些差异，以提供公平的眼部护理。
原文中“Medicare”是医疗保险的意思，为了便于读者理解，翻译时保留了英文。
原文中“insurance program”是保险计划的意思，翻译时保留了英文。
