Prevalence of dry eye syndrome among US women☆
Section snippets
Study patients
Participants in the present study included the 39,876 health professionals ages 45 to 84 years old in 1992 who are enrolled in the WHS, a randomized trial designed to assess the benefits and risks of aspirin and vitamin E in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer in healthy women.6 Because of their training in nursing or other areas of health care, participants have reliably reported specific details about their health. Participants receive mailed questionnaires every year
Results
Of the 39,876 participants in the WHS, 38,124 (96%) returned the questionnaire on which we assessed DES. Among these women, 36,995 (97%) answered the three dry eye questions. The study population ranged in age from 49 to 89 years old (Table 1). Ninety-four percent of the women indicated they were white, with the largest proportion of women living in the South (31.0%). All women were health professionals with at least some secondary education, the majority (74.0%) having a 3-year registered
Discussion
We found DES to be a relatively common condition among a large group of middle-aged and older US women. When adjusted to the age distribution of US women, data from the present study suggest that over 3.2 million women age 50 years old and older in the US suffer from DES. The prevalence of DES appears to increase with age, although we did not observe a significant age-related increase when DES symptoms are considered alone. The prevalence of DES does not appear to vary greatly by
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to the 39,876 dedicated participants of the Women’s Health Study.
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InternetAdvance publication at ajo.com Feb 19, 2003