Study: Physical Activity and Glaucoma Incidence Reduction

This study assessed the dose-response relationship of vigorous physical activity (running distance, km x d[-1]) or cardiorespiratory fitness (meters-per-second pace during a 10-km footrace) to the risk for incident glaucoma. Participant-reported, physician-diagnosed incident glaucoma was compared with distance run per week and 10-km footrace performance in a cohort of 29,854 male runners without diabetes followed prospectively for 7.7 years. The survival analyses were adjusted for age, hypertension, current and past cigarette use and intakes of meat, fish, fruit and alcohol.

Two hundred incident glaucoma cases were reported during follow up. The risk for reported glaucoma decreased 37% per meter per second increment in a 10-km race performance. Relative to the least fit men (i.e., slowest, < or = 3.5 m x s[-1]), the risk for incident-reported glaucoma declined 29% in those who ran 3.6-4.0 m x s(-1), 54% for those who ran 4.1-4.5 m x s(-1), 51% for those who ran 4.6-5.0 m x s(-1), and glaucoma was nonexistent among the 781 men who exceeded 5.0 m x s(-1). The risk for incident, reported glaucoma decreased 5% per kilometer per day run at baseline, which remained significant when adjusted for the 10-km race performance (5% reduction per kilometer per day), and both body mass index and race performance. Baseline hypertension was unrelated to the incident glaucoma.

These data provide preliminary evidence that vigorous physical activity may reduce glaucoma risk, which, in the absence of medical record validation, could represent ocular hypertension in addition to frank glaucoma. Additional follow up with validation is needed to identify the type of glaucoma affected.

SOURCE: Williams PT. Relationship of incident glaucoma versus physical activity and fitness in male runners. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2009;41(8):1566-1572