Severe mental illness and ophthalmic health: a linked administrative data study

Finola R Ferry; Michael Rosato; Gerard Leavey

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0286860

Severe mental illness and ophthalmic health: a linked administrative data study

Finola R Ferry
, Michael Rosato
, Gerard Leavey

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

38 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Background
While evidence has emerged highlighting the potential benefits of the eye as a window to the central nervous system, research on severe mental illness (SMI) and eye health is rare.
Aims
We examine the association of SMI with a range of ophthalmic health outcomes, and whether any relationship is modified by age.
Methods
We used linked administrative data from general practitioner (GP), hospital and
ophthalmic records to examine receipt of any Health and Social Care (HSC) eye-test; and (based on eligibility recorded for a sight test) any glaucoma, any diabetes, and any blindness among the Northern Ireland (NI) hospital population between January 2015 and November 2019 (N=798,564).
Results
When compared with non-SMI patients, those with SMI recorded a higher prevalence of having had a sight test, diabetes, and blindness. In fully adjusted logistic regression models, higher likelihood of an eye-test and diabetes (OR=1.71: 95%CI=1.63, 1.79 and OR=1.29: 1.19, 1.40 respectively); and lower likelihood of glaucoma remained (OR=0.69: 0.53, 0.90). Amongst persons with SMI there was evidence that the likelihood of having had an eye-test was lower in the older age-groups.
Conclusion
Our study provides new evidence on ophthalmic health inequalities associated with SMI. While the study has immediate relevance to its NI context, we believe it is generalizable to wider UK health concerns. We emphasize the need for more research of this type, using large linkable electronic administrative databases to further our understanding of both health inequalities associated with SMI and poor eye health, and health outcomes in general

Original language	English
Article number	e0286860
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	13
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	18
Issue number	6
Early online date	7 Jun 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286860
Publication status	Published online - 7 Jun 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Ferry et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability Statement

All data used in theses analyses are routinely collected administrative databases, gathered usually for purposes other than research. The authors are not the data owners or data custodians. Because of legal restrictions to prevent disclosure of sensitive patient information, the data are held by a “trusted third party” (TTP), which in this case is the Honest Broker Service (HBS) in Northern Ireland. They
control access, which is subject to a stringent protocol: all researchers must be accredited before data are made available; data are made available on
a project-specific basis (in this case ophthalmic data linked to other contextual data); data is available only within a secure environment - which cannot be removed from this setting; finally, findings and other analytic results are scrutinized by the TTP to ensure that disclosure issues are not breached. Anyone wishing to access these data and/or clarify the access procedures, should
contact [email protected].

Funding

GL received the funding award. This work was undertaken for a project as part of Administrative Data Research Northern Ireland, which is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (project number: ES/W010240/1).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

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10.1371/journal.pone.0286860

journal.pone.0286860Final published version, 397 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Background While evidence has emerged highlighting the potential benefits of the eye as a window to the central nervous system, research on severe mental illness (SMI) and eye health is rare. Aims We examine the association of SMI with a range of ophthalmic health outcomes, and whether any relationship is modified by age. Methods We used linked administrative data from general practitioner (GP), hospital and ophthalmic records to examine receipt of any Health and Social Care (HSC) eye-test; and (based on eligibility recorded for a sight test) any glaucoma, any diabetes, and any blindness among the Northern Ireland (NI) hospital population between January 2015 and November 2019 (N=798,564). Results When compared with non-SMI patients, those with SMI recorded a higher prevalence of having had a sight test, diabetes, and blindness. In fully adjusted logistic regression models, higher likelihood of an eye-test and diabetes (OR=1.71: 95\%CI=1.63, 1.79 and OR=1.29: 1.19, 1.40 respectively); and lower likelihood of glaucoma remained (OR=0.69: 0.53, 0.90). Amongst persons with SMI there was evidence that the likelihood of having had an eye-test was lower in the older age-groups. Conclusion Our study provides new evidence on ophthalmic health inequalities associated with SMI. While the study has immediate relevance to its NI context, we believe it is generalizable to wider UK health concerns. We emphasize the need for more research of this type, using large linkable electronic administrative databases to further our understanding of both health inequalities associated with SMI and poor eye health, and health outcomes in general",

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N2 - Background While evidence has emerged highlighting the potential benefits of the eye as a window to the central nervous system, research on severe mental illness (SMI) and eye health is rare. Aims We examine the association of SMI with a range of ophthalmic health outcomes, and whether any relationship is modified by age. Methods We used linked administrative data from general practitioner (GP), hospital and ophthalmic records to examine receipt of any Health and Social Care (HSC) eye-test; and (based on eligibility recorded for a sight test) any glaucoma, any diabetes, and any blindness among the Northern Ireland (NI) hospital population between January 2015 and November 2019 (N=798,564). Results When compared with non-SMI patients, those with SMI recorded a higher prevalence of having had a sight test, diabetes, and blindness. In fully adjusted logistic regression models, higher likelihood of an eye-test and diabetes (OR=1.71: 95%CI=1.63, 1.79 and OR=1.29: 1.19, 1.40 respectively); and lower likelihood of glaucoma remained (OR=0.69: 0.53, 0.90). Amongst persons with SMI there was evidence that the likelihood of having had an eye-test was lower in the older age-groups. Conclusion Our study provides new evidence on ophthalmic health inequalities associated with SMI. While the study has immediate relevance to its NI context, we believe it is generalizable to wider UK health concerns. We emphasize the need for more research of this type, using large linkable electronic administrative databases to further our understanding of both health inequalities associated with SMI and poor eye health, and health outcomes in general

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Severe mental illness and ophthalmic health: a linked administrative data study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Funding

UN SDGs

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