Association between dry eye disease and asthma: a nationwide population-based study

PeerJ

article

Yung-Chieh Huang¹  Wei-Cheng Chan³  Jiaan-Der Wang¹  Lin-Shien Fu¹  Yu-Tse Tsan³ 

[1] Department of Pediatrics, Taichung Veterans General Hospital;Division of Pediatrics, Puli Branch, Taichung Veterans General Hospital;Department of Emergency Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital;School of Medicine, China Medical University;Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang-Ming University;Department of Pediatrics, National Yang-Ming University;Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University College of Public Health;School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University

关键词: Dry eye disease;    Asthma;    Taiwan;    NHIRD;    Allergy;    Immunology;    Allergic comorbidities;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.5941

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Background Dry eye disease (DED), a chronic ocular disease, is associated with numerous medical issues, including asthma. However, studies on these associations are limited. In this study, we investigated the incidence of DED among patients with asthma and its correlation with other allergic comorbidities. Methods We retrospectively analyzed data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. We compared the data of 41,229 patients with asthma with those of 164,916 sex- and age-matched non-asthma controls. We followed up the patient and control groups from 1998 to 2010, and compared the rate of DED in these two groups. We further analyzed the allergic comorbidities and asthma-related medication use among the patients with asthma to verify whether these factors were associated with DED. Results The patients in the asthma group were more likely to have DED than were the controls (6.35% vs. 4.92%, p < 0.0001). In the asthma group, female had a higher risk of DED (odds ratio (OR) = 1.70, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.57–1.85]) than males did. After adjustment for sex, age, income, urbanization, and the other two allergic comorbidities, patients with allergic rhinitis (adjusted OR = 1.58, 95% CI [1.46–1.72]) and urticaria (adjusted OR = 1.25, 95% CI [1.12–1.38]) were more likely to have DED, but not patients with atopic dermatitis (adjusted OR = 1.17, 95% CI [0.98–1.40]). Patients with asthma who had prescriptions of leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) (adjusted OR = 1.29, 95% CI [1.01–1.64]), oral antihistamines (adjusted OR = 2.02, 95% CI [1.84–2.21]), and inhaled corticosteroids (adjusted OR = 1.19, 95% CI [1.04–1.36]) exhibited association with DED. Discussion Our findings reveal that patients with asthma—particularly females—were more likely to have DED, with comorbidities such as allergic rhinitis and urticaria, and prescriptions including LTRAs, antihistamines, and inhaled corticosteroids. The results suggest that in clinical practice, physicians should pay attention to DED, particularly in patients with a high risk of DED.

【 授权许可】

CC BY