Glaucoma risk factors

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Risk factors

• People with a family history of glaucoma have about a six percent chance of developing glaucoma.
• Diabetics and African Americans are three times more likely than Caucasians to develop primary open angle glaucoma.
• Asians are susceptible to angle-closure glaucoma, and Inuit have a twenty to forty times higher risk than Caucasians of developing primary angle closure glaucoma.
• Women are three times more likely than men to develop acute angle-closure glaucoma due to their shallower anterior chambers.
• Use of steroids can also cause glaucoma.

Anyone can develop glaucoma, however some people are at higher risk than others. The most important risk factor for glaucoma is ocular hypertension. Individuals at a higher risk of developing glaucoma include:

• African Americans over age 40.
• Everyone over age 60, especially Mexican Americans.
• People with a family history of glaucoma.

Among African Americans, studies show that glaucoma is:

• Five times more likely to occur in African Americans than in Caucasians.
• About four times more likely to cause blindness in African Americans than in Caucasians.
• Fifteen times more likely to cause blindness in African Americans between the ages of 45-64 than in Caucasians of the same age group.

A comprehensive dilated eye exam can reveal more risk factors, such as:

• High eye pressure
• Thinness of the cornea
• Abnormal optic nerve anatomy.

In some people with certain combinations of these high-risk factors, medicines in the form of eye drops reduce the risk of developing glaucoma by about half.