Abstract
Purpose :
It has been well reported that primary open-angle glaucoma (OAG) is a second leading cause of irreversible blindness across the globe. Identifications of potential risk factors associated with OAG could provide preventive measures to control OAG earlier in the disease progression. In this study, we used a large electronic health record (EHR) database representing a wide demographic to assess risk factors for OAG.
Methods :
The OAG study cohort was identified using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. We retrieved a total of 132,504 OAG records from 2001 to 2015 for retrospective analysis using exclusion and inclusion criteria for the study. We assessed the relationship between OAG and selected variables using multivariable logistic regression. Adjusted risk ratios were calculated from fitted logistic models and a p-value of < 0.05 was considered statically significant.
Results :
Estimated from the dataset, the overall prevalence of OAG was about 15.3%. The incidence of OAG was higher in African Americans (27.5%) and Asians (13.9%) and a lower incidence was observed among the Hispanic (11.0%) race. When comparing gender, females showed a higher prevalence of glaucoma (16.3%) compared to the male population (15.7%). Furthermore, an adjusted odds ratio analysis from the regression model revealed several potential risk factors including atherosclerosis (1.19; 95% CI 1.13. – 1.51), hypertension (1.32; 95% CI 1.20-1.42) and obesity (1.26; 95% CI 1.1 - 1.40) when compared to the non-glaucoma group.
Conclusions :
The results preliminarily suggest that obesity and hypertension may be risk factors for OAG and lead one to believe these disease processes should be explored in further detail. Furthermore, the African American race has a higher risk of developing glaucoma compared to the Caucasian (p <0.05) race. With the use of a massive cohort gathered through the EMR database, the identified risk factors can increase our current understanding of glaucoma risk and can therefore, aid in timely intervention and disease management.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.