Diabetes ups glaucoma risk in postmenopausal women

Among postmenopausal women, diabetes status is correlated with an increased risk of subsequent glaucoma, a recent Korea study has found.

Drawing from the 2009 National Health Screening Program, researchers evaluated 1,372,240 postmenopausal women (aged ≥40 years) who were divided into five groups according to diabetes status: no diabetes (n=867,390), impaired fasting glucose (IFG; n=328,736), new-onset diabetes (n=35,439), diabetes treated with oral hypoglycaemic drugs (n=119,552), and diabetes treated with insulin (n=21,123).

Cox proportional hazard regression analysis found that relative to women without diabetes, those with IFG were six percent more likely to develop glaucoma (hazard ratio [HR], 1.061, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.036–1.086). This analysis was adjusted for confounders such as age, income, smoking and drinking, body mass index, and exercise, among others.

Such risk remained significant and increased in magnitude in the subsequent diabetes status groups. Those with new-onset diabetes (HR, 1.151, 95 percent CI, 1.086–1.220), diabetes treated with oral hypoglycaemic drugs (HR, 1.449, 95 percent CI, 1.406–1.493), and diabetes treated with insulin (HR, 1.884, 95 percent CI, 1.777–1.999) were at much higher risk of glaucoma.

“Diabetes status, stratified into IFG, new onset diabetes, diabetes treated with oral hypoglycaemic medication, and diabetes treated with insulin, successively increased the risk of glaucoma. While these findings were consistent in all subgroups, the association was more prominent in younger age groups,” the researchers said.

“Our study suggests that diabetes status can be utilized to select higher-risk groups for glaucoma screening,” they added.