Intraocular pressure and systemic factors in an ophthalmologically normal Korean population

Jong-Soo III Lee

Purpose: This study was performed to evaluate the relationship between intraocular pressure (IOP) and systemic health parameters such as gender, age, systolic/diastolic blood pressure (S/DBP), body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL), triglyceride (TG) and fasting blood sugar (FBS) in a Korean population.

Methods: A total of 30,893 subjects (15,735 males, 15,158 females) underwent automated multiphasic test, including non-contact tonometry, automated perimetry, fundus photography, systolic/diastolic blood pressure, BMI and blood samplings for total cholesterol, HDL, TG and FBS. Level of IOP and correlating systemic factors were examined using cross-sectional analysis by SPSS (ver. 12.0K) and MedCalc (ver. 9.3.9)

Results: The mean age of subjects was 47.7 years. The mean IOP of overall subjects was 15.4±3.2 mmHg for both eyes. The mean IOPs of men were 15.8±3.3 mmHg and 15.7±3.3 mmHg for right and left eyes respectively, which were significantly higher than women (15.1±3.1 mmHg and 15.0 ±3.1 mmHg). The prevalence of ocular hypertension in the right and left eyes was 5.1%, 5.2% in men and 2.6%, 2.5% in women (P<0.05). Statically positive relations between IOP and SBP, DBP, total cholesterol, TG and FBS, and a negative correlation between IOP and HDL were found by Pearson correlation coefficient (P<0.05). By multiple regression analysis, IOP was positively associated with gender, age, SBP, DBP, total cholesterol, TG and FBS.

Conclusions: This study showed that IOP was found to increase with BMI, SBP, DBP, total cholesterol, TG and FBS. But it was negatively correlated with age in a normal Korean population.

Key words: age, blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol, fasting blood sugar, intraocular pressure