Eye disorder differentiates seasonality outcomes in persons with severe visual impairment

- Eye diagnoses differentiate seasonality in persons with severe visual impairment.
- Early life eye disorder is associated with lower seasonality scores than acquired eye disorders.
- Macular degeneration is associated with high-level seasonality.

BackgroundLight plays a crucial role in both the pathogenesis and treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Consequently decreased retinal sensitivity to light has been suggested to be a risk factor for SAD. In a population of persons with severe visual impairment we recently found a highly increased prevalence of SAD. We now aimed to identify eye disorders or anatomical locations with specific association to seasonality.MethodsIn 912 cases (33%) from our prior seasonal pattern assessment questionnaire (SPAQ) screening study, we retrieved eye diagnoses from the Danish National Patient Registry and analyzed for specific eye disorders or anatomical locations that significantly differentiated SPAQ outcomes (global seasonality score, (GSS) and SPAQ-SAD prevalence).ResultsPersons with early life eye disorders (congenital conditions or retinopathy of prematurity) reported less symptoms of SAD (median GSS 4.5) than persons with acquired eye disorders (median GSS 5.0, p=0.005). Persons with macular degenerative disorders (MD) had highly increased seasonality outcomes (hazard ratio 2.23, p=0.002, median GSS 5 vs. 8, p=0.01).Limitationsthe study is a cross-sectional study based on a self-report questionnaire. Register data may be incomplete.ConclusionsMD is significantly associated to high-level seasonality and SAD prevalence. Early life eye disorder is associated to slightly lower seasonality compared to acquired eye disorder. Longitudinal studies are needed to assess causality.