Joshua D. Stein, MD and colleagues at the Kellogg Eye Center, Ann Arbor, Mich, state in a study that Asian Americans have a higher risk of developing glaucoma (6.5%) than their non-Hispanic white counterparts (5.6%) and a slightly higher risk than Latinos (6.4%).  The researchers based their conclusions on an analysis of 2.3 million eyecare recipients older than 40 who had been enrolled in a managed care network from 2001-2007,

In a news release, Ophthalmology published that narrow-angle glaucoma was most prevalent among Chinese and Vietnamese Americans.  The risk of normal-tension glaucoma was 3-10 times higher among Japanese Americans than any other Asian ethnicities and almost all Asian subgroups had a higher risk of normal-tension glaucoma then non-Asian Americans.  Among Asian Americans, open-angle glaucoma rates were highest in the Japanese subgroup (about 9.5%)

EyeWorld Weekly News, “Study: Asian Americans have Higher Glaucoma Risk”, Vol. 16, No. 12.

Cynthia Matossian, MD