Rates of hospital admissions for primary angle closure glaucoma among Chinese, Malays, and Indians in Singapore

Aim-To estimate the rates of hospital admissions for primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) in Chinese, Malays, and Indians in Singapore, Methods-A population-wide hospital discharge database in Singapore was used to identify all hospital admissions with a primary discharge diagnosis of PACG (International Classification of Disease-CM code: 365.2). The Singapor e census was used for denominator data. Results-Between 1993 and 1997 there were 894 hospital admissions for PACG. The mean annual rate of PACG admissions was 11.1 per 100 000 (95% confidenc e interval (CI), 10.4, 11.8) among people aged 30 years and over. The annua l rate was highest for Chinese (age and sex adjusted rate: 12.2 per 100 000 ), which was twice that of Malays (6.0 per 100 000) and Indians (6.3 per 10 0 000). Females had two times higher rates than males in all three races (a ge adjusted relative risk: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.7, 2.3). Conclusion-Malay and Indian people had identical rates of hospital admissio ns for PACG, which were only half the rates compared with Chinese.