Antihypertensive Medication Postpones the Onset of Glaucoma: Evidence From a Nationwide Study
Horwitz A, Klemp M, Jeppesen J, Tsai JC, Torp-Pedersen C, Kolko M Hypertension. 2017;69:202-210
Study Summary
To assess whether there is any association between the use of antihypertensive medication and the development of glaucoma, researchers looked at data from more than 2.6 million people from 40 to 95 years of age collected between the years 1996 and 2012 by the National Danish Registry of Medicinal Products Statistics. From this group, 739,494 patients were treated with antihypertensive drugs, and 115,617 were shown to have incident glaucoma.
The mean age at hypertension onset was 60.3 years. Among individuals treated with antihypertensive medication, 5.8% initiated treatment with glaucoma medication throughout the study period. In comparison, 1.3% of patients without hypertension were prescribed glaucoma medication within the period. Furthermore, 32.1% of patients with glaucoma were prescribed antihypertensive medication within the period. The rate of glaucoma is 0.81 cases per 100 person-years in individuals treated with antihypertensive drugs, which is substantially larger than the corresponding rate of 0.19 cases per 100 person-years in individuals not treated with antihypertensive drugs.
In summary, the analysis confirms that there is a correlation between hypertension and glaucoma, although the treatment of hypertension with any antihypertensive medication (except vasodilators) may protect against glaucoma.
