Almost 3% of 70-year-olds in a Swedish study were unaware they had glaucoma.
Published in Acta Ophthalmologica, the study was conducted by Lena Johansson, a PhD student at the University of Gothenburg and a specialist nurse at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, as part of Sweden’s ongoing H70 study. Running for the past 50 years, the H70 study invites all 70-year-olds born in a certain year in the city of Gothenburg to attend several comprehensive physical and cognitive examinations.
In Johansson’s study 4.8% of the 560 participants were confirmed to have glaucoma overall. “So half of those who turned out to have glaucoma were diagnosed because they took part in the study,” she said. Patients with glaucoma had similar levels of physical activity and did not smoke or drink more alcohol than those without the condition, she reported. Both groups rated their overall quality of life similarly; however, glaucoma patients rated their vision-related quality of life as poorer, she said.
