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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Assessing Early Stage Open-Angle Glaucoma in Patients by Isolated-Check Visual Evoked Potential
Published on: May 25, 2020
Incorporating mortality risk into estimates of 5-year glaucoma risk
Beth Ann Griffin1, Marc N Elliott, Anne L Coleman
1RAND Corp, Arlington, Virginia, USA. bethg@rand.org
Purpose:
To incorporate mortality risk, a potentially important factor to consider when deciding whether to initiate therapy for ocular hypertensives, into estimates of 5-year glaucoma risk.
Design:
Comparison study of estimates of glaucoma risk that do and do not account for mortality risk.
Methods:
We computed 5-year risk of glaucoma for a set of hypothetical glaucoma suspects. We then determined their 5-year risk of death using the Charlson index, which is based on age and comorbidity, and computed mortality-adjusted 5-year risk that the individual will develop glaucoma before death.
Results:
Accounting for mortality risk reduces the risk of developing glaucoma in one's lifetime. For example, a 75-year-old patient with an unadjusted 5-year glaucoma risk of 51.0% can have mortality-adjusted 5-year glaucoma risks of 41.8% (18% relative risk reduction) or 20.2% (60% relative risk reduction) assuming the patient has a Charlson comorbidity score of 1 or 3, respectively.
Conclusions:
Shortened life expectancy reduces 5-year risk of developing glaucoma. Thus, mortality risk is another factor clinicians should consider when deciding whether to initiate treatment of glaucoma suspects.
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