Presbyopic Glaucoma Patients Exhibit Greater Contact Lens Under-Correction Than Non-Glaucomatous Subjects

Previous studies have suggested that presbyopia may progress faster in patients with glaucoma. This study aimed to compare glaucoma patients and controls to assess the severity of presbyopia in terms of the preference for contact lens (CL) correction.

We compared 457 glaucoma patients and 500 controls aged 40-69 years, assessing near add power, CL-corrected visual acuity, under-correction with CL (CL power- full correction power), and glaucoma and dry eye-related parameters. Regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between the near-add power and ocular parameters. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis estimated the age at which the near add power reached +3.00 D.

The mean near add power was 2.27 ± 0.84 D in the control group and 2.47 ± 0.71 D in the glaucoma group (p < 0.01). The CL-corrected visual acuity (LogMAR) was 0.02 ± 0.10 and 0.04 ± 0.11 (p < 0.01), and the under-correction was 0.28 ± 0.69 D and 0.43 ± 0.94 D (p < 0.01), respectively. The glaucoma group showed poorer dry eye-related parameters, and under-correction was associated with myopia, anisometropia, near-add power, lower Schirmer test values, and superficial punctate keratopathy. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that glaucoma patients reached +3.00 D near add power significantly earlier than the controls (P<0.01).

Patients with glaucoma preferred more under-corrected CLs than controls. Our results further confirmed the presence of severe presbyopia in individuals with glaucoma.