Electronic medical records driven big data analytics in retinal diseases, report number 1: non-oncological retinal diseases in children and adolescents in India

Purpose To describe the spectrum and demographic distribution of non-oncological retinal diseases in children and adolescents presenting to a multi-tier ophthalmic hospital network in India. Methods This is a cross-sectional hospital-based retrospective study over nine years (March 2011–March 2020) from a pyramidal eye care network in India. The analysis included 477,954 new patients (0–21 years), collected from an International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coded electronic medical record (EMR) system. Patients with a clinical diagnosis of retinal disease (non-oncological) in at least one eye were included. Age-wise distribution of these diseases in children and adolescents was analysed. Results In the study, 8.44% (n = 40,341) of new patients were diagnosed with non-oncological retinal pathology in at least one eye. The age group-specific distribution of retinal diseases was 47.4%, 11. 8%, 5.9%, 5.9%, 6.4%, 7.6% in infants (< 1 year), toddlers (1–2 years), early childhood (3–5 years), middle childhood (6–11 years), early adolescents (12–18 years) and late adolescents (18–21 years), respectively. 60% were male, and 70% had bilateral disease. The mean age was 9.46 ± 7.52 years. The common retinal disorders were retinopathy of prematurity (ROP, 30.5%), retinal dystrophy (19.5%; most commonly, retinitis pigmentosa), and retinal detachment (16.4%). Four-fifth of the eyes had moderate to severe visual impairment. Nearly one-sixth of patients needed low vision and rehabilitative services, and about 1 in 10 patients required surgical intervention (n = 5960, 8.6%). Conclusion and relevance About 1 in 10 children and adolescents seeking eye care in our cohort had non-oncological retinal diseases; the common ones were ROP (in infants) and retinitis pigmentosa (in adolescents). This information would help future strategic planning of eye health care in the institution in pediatric and adolescent age groups.