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Association between atrial fibrillation and the risk of glaucoma development: a 12-year Nationwide cohort study

Eye volume 37, pages 2033–2041 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the risk of glaucoma development in patients with atrial fibrillation (A-fib) using Korean National Health Insurance Service data.

Methods

The present study used a National Sample Cohort consisting of approximately one million random subjects who were tracked from 2002 to 2013 (12 years). Newly diagnosed glaucoma and A-fib were included based on the Korean Classification of Disease codes. The A-fib group consisted of patients who received an initial A-fib diagnosis between January 2003 and December 2007 as an index period (n = 8765). The control group (n = 43,352) was selected using a 1:5 propensity-score matching for social and demographic factors. Each subject was followed up until 2013. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was performed to compare the risk of glaucoma development between the A-fib group and the control group.

Results

The rate of glaucoma development was 3.54% in the A-fib group and 2.96% in the control group (P < 0.0001). A-fib increased the risk of glaucoma development [hazard ratio = 1.31; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.15 to 1.48] after adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities, residence, household income, and year of enrollment. In multivariable Cox regression analysis, patients with comorbidity of diabetes mellitus and chronic renal failure and those aged ≥50 years showed significantly higher risk of glaucoma development (all P < 0.001).

Conclusions

A-fib was significantly associated with the development of glaucoma after adjusting for potential confounding factors. Physicians may need to monitor patients with A-fib carefully for possible glaucoma development.

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Fig. 1: Diagram of the longitudinal cohort study.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by a grant (No. 2019R1G1A1007020) of National Research Foundation funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), Republic of Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital, Gyeongsang National University, School of Medicine, Changwon, Republic of Korea

    Hyun-kyung Cho

  2. lnstitute of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Republic of Korea

    Hyun-kyung Cho

  3. Department of Ophthalmology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jong Chul Han

  4. Department of Ophthalmology, St Vincent’s Hospital, College of Medicine, Catholic University of Korea, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Jin A. Choi

  5. STAT Department, LSK Global Pharma Services, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jae Eun Chae

  6. Regional Cardiocerebrovascular Disease Center, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Republic of Korea

    Rock Bum Kim

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Contributions

HC, JH, and JAC contributed to the design of this study; HC, JH, JAC, JC, and RK conducted this study; HC, JH, JAC, JC, and RK contributed to data collection, analysis, management, and interpretation; HC, JH, and JC, and JC prepared the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hyun-kyung Cho.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval

This study adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. NHIS-NCS 2002–2013 project was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Korean National Health Insurance Service. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital and School of Medicine. The requirement for informed consent was exempted by the IRB because this study was retrospective in nature.

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Cho, Hk., Han, J.C., Choi, J.A. et al. Association between atrial fibrillation and the risk of glaucoma development: a 12-year Nationwide cohort study. Eye 37, 2033–2041 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-022-02274-1

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