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Type-2 diabetes associated with increased risk of glaucoma, study shows

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Type-2 diabetes appears to increase patients' risks for developing primary open-angle glaucoma, according to a prospective study.

Louis R. Pasquale, MD, and colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health evaluated the relationship between type-2 diabetes mellitus and the incidence of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) among women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study.

“There is no reason to think that our results are gender specific, but more study of the relation between [type-2 diabetes] and POAG in men is needed,” the authors said. “Furthermore, our population consists predominantly of Caucasians, and our results may not be applicable to other racial groups,” they added.

Between 1980 and 2000, the Nurses’ Health Study enrolled 121,700 women nurses, who were at least 40 years old, in 11 U.S. states. Of these women, 1,039 women had a confirmed diagnosis of POAG, and 429 women met the criteria for study inclusion — definite or probable POAG based on a glaucoma specialist’s review.

The researchers found that 30 of these 429 women (7%) had type-2 diabetes. These patients tended to have a higher body mass index, more hypertension, lower activity levels and less alcohol intake, according to the study. This positive association remained after controlling for race, hypertension, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol intake, smoking and family history of glaucoma, according to the study.

However, the researchers found a stronger association among patients with a shorter duration of diabetes. Patients with less than 5 years’ duration of type-2 diabetes had a risk ratio of 2.24 for POAG, compared with a risk ratio of 1.54 among patients with a duration of at least 5 years.

A positive association between type-2 diabetes and POAG was also evident, regardless of the use of hypoglycemic agents. Type-2 diabetes patients not using such medications had a risk ratio of 2.3, while patients using such agents had a risk ratio of 1.71, according to the study.

The study is published in the July issue of Ophthalmology.