Real-world epidemiology of Uveitis: a retrospective three-tier healthcare facility-based comparison of its causes and visual outcome in Ube-City, Japan

This study aimed to conduct a comparative epidemiological survey of uveitis across various healthcare settings and elucidate the clinical characteristics. We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study in the Ube-City medical region in Yamaguchi prefecture and recruited 268 patients from a university hospital (151 patients), municipal hospitals (51 patients), and private eye clinics (58 patients). Medical records of patients who were newly diagnosed with uveitis between January 2018 and December 2019 in the institutes were included, reviewed, and compared; main outcomes were number of uveitis causes and visual acuity. Panuveitis, which is associated with systemic diseases, such as Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada disease and sarcoidosis, was more prominent in university hospital patients. Conversely, anterior uveitis including traumatic iritis was prominently detected in general hospitals and private eye clinics. The best-corrected visual acuity improved to 1.0 (logMAR = 0); an improvement of 74%, 61%, and 54% was observed in private eye clinic, general hospital, and university hospital patients, respectively. This study identified differences in uveitis presentation and treatment across diverse clinical settings. The results of this study provide valuable real-world data for differentiating the causes of uveitis at university hospitals, general hospitals, and private eye clinics.