Trends in pediatric uveitis: A systematic review and meta-epidemiological investigation of geographic, economic, and climate factors

Literature on pediatric uveitis frequently describes the disease as noninfectious, bilateral, and anterior with a female sex predilection. This characterization misrepresents epidemiology studies from many parts of the world. This systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis combines demographic and clinical data representing 43 studies from 26 countries over the last 10 years to create a global picture of the epidemiology of pediatric uveitis. We performed additional Bayesian meta-regression analyses to explore how geography, economy, and climate may have played a role in inter-study variability. While there was a greater proportion of females in studies from high-income countries, there was a male sex predilection in lower-middle-income countries. We found that climate had a greater bearing on proportion of infectious etiologies than economic or regional designation, and that these factors played varying roles with regards to specific infectious and noninfectious etiologies. Income alone proved to be a significant moderator of vision at presentation, with high-income countries having the highest proportion of patients with good vision and the lowest proportion of patients with poor vision. Our study helps to better characterize the complex global picture of pediatric uveitis.