ArticleBMJ open ophthalmology2025
Associations between certification of visual impairment and socioeconomic deprivation: a study using data from the regional Northern Ireland sight impairment certification database.
Article in BMJ open ophthalmology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
aimsWithin the UK, there are approximately 340 000 people who are registered as sight impaired (SI) or severely Sight Impaired (SSI), mainly due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic eye disease (DED) and glaucoma. This study aimed to explore the association between certification of visual impairment (CVI) and socioeconomic deprivation.
methodsData from all CVI forms across Northern Ireland (NI) between 2018 to 2022 were used for analysis. Data collected included age, sex, visual acuity (logMAR), postcode and certification category. Deprivation measure was obtained using the Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure 2017 (NIMDM17). Patients were allocated a quintile from 1 (most deprived) to 5 (least deprived).
resultsOf the 1863 patients with VI who met the inclusion criteria, 1798 (97%) had postal codes recorded and therefore were allocated an NIMDM17 score. There were 755 patients in total, which were grouped into the most deprived and least deprived areas (357 and 398, respectively). Results showed that patients living in more deprived areas were significantly more likely to be certified as SI/SSI at a younger age than those living in less deprived areas (80.97 vs 85.77, respectively, p<0.001). This was seen in patients with AMD (85.1 vs 87.5, p=0.005) and DED (63.9 vs 69.8, p=0.013) but not in glaucoma (80.9 vs 84.1, p=0.073).
conclusionThis study has shown that patients living in more deprived areas are more likely to be certified as SI or SSI at a significantly younger age compared with patients from less deprived areas across the certification database.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.