Diabetes mellitus and risk of open‐angle glaucoma—A population‐based follow‐up study

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the association of diabetes mellitus (DM) and risk of open-angle glaucoma (OAG). Methods This population-based historic cohort consisted of individuals at age >= 40 years with DM treatment initiated 2001-2010 and a reference population matched by age, gender and hospital district. Incidence of OAG was compared between individuals with DM and their matched non-diabetic reference pairs. New glaucoma cases were identified from medication reimbursement certificates and hospital billing records. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were analysed with Poisson regression models adjusted for age, sex, hospital district, socioeconomic status, systemic medications and chronic diseases. We analysed the sensitivity of the results with adapted input variables and performed a competing events analysis. Results Of the 244 100 study subjects meeting inclusion criteria, 2721 (1.1%) developed OAG. Follow-up spanned from 2001 to 2017. DM was associated with a modestly reduced incidence of OAG when adjusted for confounding factors (IRR 0.92, CI 0.85-0.99). Conclusions In our longitudinal population-based study, we found a modest decrease in the risk of OAG for individuals with DM.