Associations between certification of visual impairment and socioeconomic deprivation: a study using data from the regional Northern Ireland sight impairment certification database

Background/aims Within 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.

Methods Data 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).

Results Of 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).

Conclusion This 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.