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Glaucoma risk increases 69 percent if very low vitamin D - Jan 2014

Is vitamin D associated with open-angle glaucoma? A cross-sectional study from South Korea.

Public Health Nutr. 2014 Jan 10:1-11.
Yoo TK1, Oh E1, Hong S2.
1 Department of Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-752, Republic of Korea.
fawoo2 at yuhs.ac and samini at yuhs.ac

OBJECTIVE:Open-angle glaucoma (OAG) is one of the major chronic diseases involving the optic nerve. However, little is known about the association between vitamin D and OAG. The present study was conducted to test the hypothesis that lower vitamin D status is associated with greater prevalence of OAG.

DESIGN:Cross-sectional study. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and OAG after adjusting for traditional potential confounders. OAG was defined by the criteria of the International Society for Geographical and Epidemiological Ophthalmology.

SETTING:The Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2010-2011.

SUBJECTS:Six thousand and ninety-four adult participants randomly selected from 192 surveys in 131 locations in South Korea.

RESULTS:Multivariable-adjusted odds ratios of OAG across quintiles of decreasing 25(OH)D were 1·26, 1·00 (reference), 1·31, 1·36 and 1·69 (P for quadratic trend <0·01). The odds ratio for the lowest 25(OH)D quintile was significantly higher than that for the second quintile (P < 0·01). In addition, we discovered that the predictors for worsening of OAG, such as intraocular pressure or vertical and horizontal cup-to-disc ratios, had a significant relationship with 25(OH)D level.

CONCLUSIONS:There was a reverse J-shaped association between 25(OH)D levels and the risk of OAG, with significantly elevated risk at lower 25(OH)D. The findings of this research suggest that vitamin D deficiency should be considered as a potential risk factor for the development of OAG. To our knowledge, the present study is the first one that shows an association between vitamin D status and OAG.

PMID: 24476947

Publisher charges $45 for the study

Note: 90 % of glaucoma in US is open-angle glaucoma

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People of African descent are three times more likely to develop primary open angle glaucoma.

Serum vitamin D status is associated with the presence but not the severity of primary open angle glaucoma.- Aug 2015

Maturitas. 2015 Aug;81(4):470-4. doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2015.05.008. Epub 2015 May 30.
Goncalves A1, Milea D2, Gohier P1, Jallet G1, Leruez S1, Baskaran M3, Aung T4, Annweiler C5.

Vitamin D is involved in visual health and function. Our objective was to determine whether age-related vitamin D insufficiency was associated with the presence and the severity of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) in a case-control study of older adults.
Case-control study.
One hundred fifty cases diagnosed with moderate-to-severe POAG (mean, 75.1 ± 8.5 years; 42.0% female) and 164 healthy controls (mean, 73.0 ± 7.9 years; 59.8% female) were included. POAG diagnosis was based on classical diagnostic criteria of optic nerve cupping and/or RNFL thinning, measured with optical coherence tomography. Severe POAG was defined as Humphrey visual field mean deviation (MD) worse than -12 dB. Vitamin D insufficiency was defined as serum 25OHD ≤ 75 nmol/L. Age, gender, mean arterial pressure, vitamin D supplementation, visual acuity, and intraocular pressure were used as potential confounders.
POAG cases had lower mean serum 25OHD concentration than controls (42.9 ± 25.7 nmol/L versus 49.4 ± 29.5 nmol/L, P=0.039) and a greater prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency (90.7% versus 82.3%, P=0.032). Increased mean serum 25OHD concentrations were associated with lower POAG frequency, even after adjustment for potential confounders (OR=0.89 per 10 nmol/L of 25OHD, P=0.045). Similarly, vitamin D insufficiency was associated with POAG (OR=2.09, P=0.034). Among POAG cases, no 25OHD difference was observed between moderate and severe POAG cases (respectively, 39.2 ± 23.3 nmol/L versus 45.1 ± 26.7 nmol/L, P=0.188); and no between-group difference regarding the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency (88.9% versus 94.0%, P=0.313).
Decreased serum 25OHD concentration was associated with POAG. There was no 25OHD difference between moderate and severe POAG.

PMID: 26059919 DOI: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2015.05.008
