Association between glaucoma and sleep apnea in a large French multicenter prospective cohort

Objective: Several reports suggest that glaucoma may be linked to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Herein, we investigated this hypothesis in the largest reported sample to date.

Methods: Data were from the French multicenter prospective cohort study including OSA-suspected patients from private practice, general and teaching hospitals. Demographics, history, comorbidities and sleep studies from patients aged >50 years were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to predict the odds ratio of prevalent glaucoma depending on sleep apnea status and other potential anthropometric, metabolic, cardiovascular and respiratory confounders.

Results: A total of 9580 patients aged >50 years were included. Among these patients, 6754 had sleep apnea and 330 had glaucoma. Glaucoma prevalence was 3.55% in patients with OSA and 3.14% in patients without OSA. OSA diagnosis did not significantly influence the risk of glaucoma in univariate analysis (odds ratio [OR], 1.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.87-1.47). The variables significantly influencing the odds of glaucoma with multivariate regression were age >61.4 years (OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.23-1.95), body mass index <30 kg/m2 (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.26-1.99), female gender (OR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.11-1.78), arterial hypertension (OR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.05-1.67), high triglyceride levels (OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.43-2.88) and thyroid dysfunction (OR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.09-2.11).

Conclusions: When confounders are taken into account, patients with OSA do not have higher odds of glaucoma compared with patients who do not have OSA in a large multicenter prospective cohort.