Predictors of Early Onset Glaucoma

Purpose/Relevance: To determine the influence of hypertension (HTN), type 2 diabetes (DM2), migraine, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on the onset of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) to enhance predictive accuracy. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data for 389 eligible patients with POAG were collected through medical records review and phone surveys. All data were assessed collectively using stepwise multiple regression analysis to determine the relative contribution to age at POAG diagnosis. We used the following groups, based on age at diagnosis, HTN for patients with or without DM2 (model 1), HTN for patients with DM2 (model 2), DM2 for patients with or without HTN (model 3), and DM2 for patients with HTN (model 4). Results: In model 1, age at HTN diagnosis was associated with age at POAG diagnosis (β = 0.14; 95% CI, 0.01–0.26, p = 0.04). In model 2, age at HTN diagnosis was not associated with age at POAG diagnosis (p > 0.05). In model 3, age at DM2 diagnosis was associated with age at POAG diagnosis (β = 0.37; 95% CI 0.16–0.58, p = 0.001). In model 4, age at DM2 diagnosis was associated with age at POAG diagnosis (β = 0.40; 95% CI 0.00–0.15, p = 0.003). Asian race/ethnicity was associated with early onset of POAG in model 3 (β = −6.44; 95% CI −12.34–0.54, p = 0.033). OSA and migraine did not influence the onset of POAG. Conclusion: Our study found that the diagnosis of DM2 and HTN at an earlier age is associated with the early onset of POAG.