Association of glaucoma and lifestyle with incident cardiovascular disease: a longitudinal prospective study from UK Biobank

The shared pathophysiological features of the cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and glaucoma suggest an association between the two diseases. Using the prospective UK Biobank cohort, we examined the associations between glaucoma and incident CVD and assessed the extent to which a healthy lifestyle reduced the CVD risk in subjects with glaucoma, using a scoring system consisting of four factors: current smoking, obesity, regular physical activity, and a healthy diet. During a mean follow-up time of 8.9 years, 22,649 (4.9%) incident CVD cases were documented. Multivariable Cox regression analyses revealed that subjects with glaucoma were significantly more likely to exhibit incident CVD (hazard ratio [HR]:1.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03–1.37; p = 0.016) than controls. In the further subgroup analyses, glaucoma increased incident CVD risk both in the young (40–55 years) and the old (56–70 years) and in both sexes, with higher risk in the young (HR: 1.33, CI 1.02–1.74) and female subjects (HR: 1.32, CI 1.14–1.52). When we analyze the associations between glaucoma and incident CVD by lifestyle factors, the highest absolute risks were observed in individuals with both glaucoma and an unhealthy lifestyle (HR: 2.66, CI 2.22–3.19). In conclusion, glaucoma was an independent risk factor for incident CVD. A healthy lifestyle was associated with a substantially lower risk for CVD incidence among adults with glaucoma.