Abstract
Purpose:
To assess the changes in intraocular pressure(IOP)with age in South Koreans
Methods:
Subjects aged 20 to 79 who had been receiving health examinations at a university hospital for at least two years were enrolled. They completed physical and ophthalmic examinations. Subjects with ocular disease that could possibly affect their IOP were excluded. The relationship between IOP and age, blood pressure, heart rate, body mass index, blood chemistry, and electrolyte were analyzed using a linear mixed model.
Results:
A total of 31,857 subjects were enrolled in the study. The relationship between IOP and age adjusted for sex, side of eye and systemic parameters showed a significantly negative tendency(-0.08562, P<0.001). Females had a less steep decreasing slope of IOP with age than males. When divided depending on age(20s~80s), it also showed a negative correlation in all age groups (respectively, p<0.001). In particular, patients in their 60s~80s had a less steep decreasing slope of IOP with age than patients in their 20s and 30s. With regard to systemic parameters, systolic blood pressure and heart rate had a significantly positive correlation with IOP(p<0.001).
Conclusions:
This is the first longitudinal study on changes of IOP with age in South Koreans. Although the amount of change was small, IOP was significantly decreased with age(-0.08562, P<0.001). In women and older age groups(60s~80s), IOP was less decreased than that of men and young age groups(20s and 30s). Of all systemic parameters, IOP was positively associated with systolic blood pressure and heart rate.
Keywords: 568 intraocular pressure •
413 aging •
460 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: health care delivery/economics/manpower