Incident cases of vision impairment and blindness among adult foreign-born and Swedish-born individuals: A national Swedish study

Purpose: To analyse risk of vision impairment (VI) and blindness in adult foreign-born individuals and Swedish-born individuals. Methods: A nationwide study of individuals 18 years of age and older (N = 6,042,891; 2,902,918 men and 3,139,973 women) in Sweden. VI (in general) and blindness was defined as at least one registered diagnosis in the National Patient Register between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2015. Cox regression analysis was used to estimate the relative risk (hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI)) of incident VI in foreign-born compared to Swedish-born individuals. The Cox regression models were stratified by sex and adjusted for age, co-morbidities, and for sociodemographic status. Results: A total of 14,597 cases (6433 men and 8164 women) of VI were registered, with an age-standardized incidence per 100,000 person-years of 10.37 in men and 11.03 in women. VI (in general) was more common in immigrants, fully adjusted HRs (95% CI) were for immigrant men 1.38 (95% CI, 1.29–1.48) and women 1.24 (95% CI, 1.16–1.32), with significantly higher HRs among men and women from Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Higher risks of blindness were also seen for immigrant men, HR 1.75 (95% CI 1.36–2.25), as well as for the other degrees of VI among immigrant men, HR 1.36 (95% CI 1.26–1.47), and immigrant women, HR 1.26 (95% CI 1.18–1.35). Conclusions: We observed a generally higher risk of VI among foreign-born men and women, especially from some regions.