Diabetes linked to modest decrease in incidence of open angle glaucoma

Written By : Jacinthlyn Sylvia |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2022-10-05T20:00:56+05:30 | Updated On 5 Oct 2022 8:01 PM IST

Finland: People with diabetes mellitus (DM) had a lower chance of developing open-angle glaucoma (OAG) in a recent study by Aapo Virtanen and colleagues. The findings of this study were published in Acta Ophthalmologica.

Optic nerve cupping, often increased intraocular pressure (IOP), gradual loss of vision field, and other anatomically defining characteristics are all symptoms of glaucoma, a group of disorders affecting the optic nerve fibers. The etiology of glaucoma is currently thought to involve both neurodegeneration and vasculopathy. The major goal of this study was to examine the incidence of glaucoma as assessed by approved prescription reimbursement claims or billed treatments for glaucoma over a 17-year follow-up period in a sizable Finnish population in order to determine the relationship between DM and glaucoma.

This population-based historic cohort was made up of people under ≥40 years old who began receiving DM treatment between 2001 and 2010 and a reference group that was matched for age, gender, and hospital district. People with DM and their matching non-diabetic reference pairs were compared in terms of OAG incidence. From medicine reimbursement certificates and hospital billing data, new glaucoma cases were found. Poisson regression models with adjustments for sex, age, hospital district, socioeconomic status, systemic drugs, and chronic illnesses were used to analyze incidence rate ratios (IRR).

The key findings of this study were:

1. 2721 (1.1%) of the 244 100 research participants who met the inclusion requirements went on to develop OAG. The period of follow-up was from 2001 to 2017.

2. When confounding variables were taken into account, DM was linked to a somewhat lower incidence of OAG (IRR 0.92).

Further research on the connection between DM and the risk of developing OAG would benefit from extensive longitudinal studies with equivalent case definitions for OAG and DM, followed by a meta-analysis. In this population-based longitudinal investigation, DM was related to a marginally decreased incidence of OAG.

Reference:

Virtanen, A., Haukka, J., Loukovaara, S., & Harju, M. (2022). Diabetes mellitus and risk of open‐angle glaucoma—A population‐based follow‐up study. In Acta Ophthalmologica. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1111/aos.15240

open-angle glaucomadiabetes mellitusacta ophthalmologica

Source : Acta Ophthalmologica

Jacinthlyn Sylvia

Neuroscience Masters graduate

Jacinthlyn Sylvia, a Neuroscience Master's graduate from Chennai has worked extensively in deciphering the neurobiology of cognition and motor control in aging. She also has spread-out exposure to Neurosurgery from her Bachelor’s. She is currently involved in active Neuro-Oncology research. She is an upcoming neuroscientist with a fiery passion for writing. Her news cover at Medical Dialogues feature recent discoveries and updates from the healthcare and biomedical research fields. She can be reached at editorial@medicaldialogues.in

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751