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Published on: December 7, 2017
Association between Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists and the Risk of Glaucoma in Individuals with Type 2
Siar Niazi1, Filip Gnesin2, Anna-Sophie Thein3
1Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Cardiology, North Zealand Hospital, Hillerød Hospital, Hillerød, Denmark; Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Purpose:
To examine the association between glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) use and the development of glaucoma in individuals with type 2 diabetes.
Design:
Nationwide, nested case-control study.
Participants:
From a nationwide cohort of 264 708 individuals, we identified 1737 incident glaucoma cases and matched them to 8685 glaucoma-free controls, all aged more than 21 years and treated with metformin and a second-line antihyperglycemic drug formulation, with no history of glaucoma, eye trauma, or eye surgery.
Methods:
Cases were incidence-density-matched to 5 controls by birth year, sex, and date of second-line treatment initiation.
Main Outcome Measures:
Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for glaucoma, defined by first-time diagnosis, first-time use of glaucoma-specific medication, or first-time glaucoma-specific surgical intervention.
Results:
Compared with the reference group, who received treatments other than GLP-1RA, individuals who were exposed to GLP-1RA treatment exhibited a lower risk of incident glaucoma (HR, 0.81; CI, 0.70-0.94; P = 0.006). Prolonged treatment extending beyond 3 years lowered the risk even further (HR, 0.71; CI, 0.55-0.91; P = 0.007). Treatment with GLP-1RA for 0 to 1 year (HR, 0.89; CI, 0.70-1.14; P = 0.35) and 1 to 3 years (HR, 0.85; CI, 0.67-1.06; P = 0.15) was not significant.
Conclusions:
Exposure to GLP-1RA was associated with a lower risk of developing glaucoma compared with receiving other second-line antihyperglycemic medication.
Financial Disclosure(S):
Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.
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