Abstract
Purpose :
To identify determinants of intraocular pressure (IOP) amongst African Americans, Chinese Americans, and Latino Americans.
Methods :
Demographic, systemic, and ocular biometric parameters were analyzed from participants aged 50 years and older from the African American Eye Disease Study (AFEDS), the Chinese American Eye Study (CHES), and the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study (LALES). We selected right eyes for analyses unless excluded based on prior intraocular surgery or treatment with IOP lowering therapy. Biometric parameters, including anterior chamber depth (ACD), axial length (AL), central corneal thickness (CCT), and lens thickness (LT), were obtained using A-scan ultrasonography. Linear regression models were developed to determine independent factors associated with IOP.
Results :
Data from AFEDS (N=4,497), CHES (N=4,958), and LALES (N=4,398) were combined for analysis. Mean IOP was 15.3mmHg, 15.3 mmHg, and 14.8 mmHg in AFEDS, CHES, and LALES respectively. Factors independently associated with IOP included participant’s self-reported gender(β=0.15, p=0.019), higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) (β=0.017, p<0.001), higher diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (β=0.012, p=0.0021), higher glycosylated hemoglobin fraction (HbA1C) (β=0.13, p<0.001), and thicker central corneal thickness (CCT) (β=12.57, p<0.001). After adjusting for these factors, race/ethnicity was not found to be significantly associated with IOP.
Conclusions :
While several demographic, systemic, and biometric factors contribute significantly to IOP, their effects are weak. Given that race/ethnicity was not significantly associated with IOP, variations in these other factors may at least partially underly the differences in IOP amongst the different racial/ethnic cohorts. Further work is needed to elucidate the relative contribution of these factors in different racial/ethnic groups.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.