Population based retrospective cohort study on risk of retinopathy of prematurity in twins.

BACKGROUND:Twin infants are likely at great risk for ROP, but studies reported conflicting findings and population studies examining the risk of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in twins is limited. We aimed to evaluate the ROP risk in the cohort of one of twins, comparing to singletons. MATERIAL AND METHODS:Using insurance claims data of a half of children in Taiwan ages 18 and less, we established a twin cohort (N = 27830) born in 1998-2009 and a randomly selected singleton cohort (N = 111080) frequency matched by sex, birth year, residential area and parental occupation and followed up to 2012 years. RESULTS:The overall incidence rate of ROP was 13.6-fold greater in the twin cohort than in the singleton cohort (35.1 vs. 2.58 per 10,000 person-years; adjusted HR = 13.4, 95% CI = 11.7-15.3; p