Women in the US are 34% less likely to have a detached retina repaired compared with men, according to a recent study, suggesting that ophthalmology may not be immune to gender disparities.
The US study findings, presented at the virtual 2020 Retina Society Annual Meeting, included about 61,000 cases of new rhegmatogenous retinal detachments, of which roughly 26,000 (43%) were women, with an overall retinal detachment repair rate of 93%.
“Across all models, including our primary model and our sensitivity models, women had lower odds of receiving retinal detachment repair after adjusting for available confounders,” said Dr Natalia Callaway from Stanford University School of Medicine. Extrapolating the results to the US Census data, if repair odds between men and women were equal, then 7,029 more women would have received retinal repair surgery during the study period, she said.
The study also found women were more likely to undergo different types of repair for retinal detachment, including primary laser barricade, primary scleral buckle, or pneumatic retinopexy, while men predominantly had pars plana vitrectomy.
Social differences likely play a role in the findings, said Dr Callaway, recommending additional research to identify the cause of the problem.
