Atraumatic Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment: Epidemiology and Association with Refractive Error in U.S. Armed Forces Service Members

To evaluate the incidence, refractive error (RE) association, and distribution of atraumatic rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) in U.S. military service members (SMs). This study used data from the Military Health System (MHS) M2 database to identify active U.S. military and National Guard SMs diagnosed with RRD from 2017 to 2022. The RE in diopters (D) was manually extracted from available medical charts for 518 eyes. The annual incidence rate of RRD was calculated overall and evaluated in terms of age, gender, and RE. A multivariate Poisson regression model was used to estimate the relative risk (RR) for RRD with RE. From 2017 to 2022, 1,537 SMs were diagnosed with RRD and 1,243,189 were diagnosed with RE. One thousand two hundred seventy-five SMs had both diagnoses: RRD and RE. The overall incidence rate of RRD over the 6-year study was 16.3 per 100,000 people (16.4 and 15.9 for males and females, respectively). In all study groups, the incidence of RRD increased with age. SMs with RE had an overall 25-fold increased risk for RRD compared to SMs without RE. RE was present in 83.0% of cases of RRD. Myopia accounted for 93.3% of cases for eyes with detailed refractive data. The incidence of RRD in U.S. SMs is comparable to other studies and is similar among male and female SMs. RE is present in most cases of RRD in SMs, with the most common type being low to moderate amounts of myopia.