Walking More Than 10,000 Steps Per Day May Be Associated With Increased Optic Disc Vessel Density in Patients With...

Patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) with average daily steps (ADS) >10,000 exhibited higher papillary vessel density (VD) compared with those with ADS ≤10,000, implying that increasing daily steps, particularly exceeding 10,000 steps, may potentially enhance ocular blood flow.

The study aimed to investigate the relationship between ADS and optic disc angioflow VD in patients with POAG.

This is a cross-sectional study. Forty-one patients with POAG (74 eyes) were recruited from the Wenzhou Glaucoma Progression Study (WGPS) and were divided into 2 groups based on international physical activity guidelines: 21 subjects (38 eyes) in the ADS >10,000 group and 20 patients (36 eyes) in the ADS ≤10,000 group. ADS was monitored using a waist-worn accelerometer (ActiGraph wGT3x-BT) for 7 consecutive days, while optic disc VD was assessed by the optical coherence tomography angiography.

Papillary VD was significantly denser in the ADS >10,000 group (ADS:12782±2925) compared with that of the ADS ≤10,000 group (ADS:7418±1543) for both whole image-all VD (WIAVD) and whole image-capillary VD (WICVD) ( P =0.026, 0.032, respectively). Univariate analysis indicates that WIAVD was denser in the ADS >10,000 group versus the ADS ≤10,000 group ( P =0.013) and that WICVD was denser in the ADS >10,000 group versus the ADS ≤10,000 group ( P =0.019). Furthermore, every 1 μm thicker in retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness was associated with a 0.24 denser in WIAVD ( P <0.0001) and a 0.23 denser in WICVD ( P <0.0001). Each 1-dB improvement in mean deviation (MD) was linked to a 0.75 increase in WIAVD ( P <0.0001) and a 0.83 increase in WICVD ( P <0.0001). In addition, a 1 mm Hg increase in intraocular pressure was associated with a 0.5 decrease in WIAVD ( P <0.009) in univariate analysis and a 0.31 decrease in multivariate analysis ( P <0.012). Multivariate analysis revealed that patients with ADS >10,000 had 1.75 higher WIAVD and 1.64 higher WICVD compared with those with ADS ≤10,000 after adjusting for other risk factors.

Patients with POAG with ADS >10,000 exhibited higher papillary VD compared with those with ADS ≤10,000, implying that increasing daily steps, particularly exceeding 10,000 steps, may potentially enhance ocular blood flow.