Risk of glaucoma to subsequent dementia or cognitive impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Substantial evidence supports that glaucoma and dementia share pathological mechanisms and pathogenic risk factors. However, the association between glaucoma, cognitive decline and dementia has yet to be elucidated.

This study was aimed to assess whether glaucoma increase the risk of dementia or cognitive impairment.

PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases for cohort or case-control studies were searched from inception to March 10, 2024. The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOS) was used to the risk of bias. Heterogeneity was rigorously evaluated using the I² test, while publication bias was assessed by visual inspection of the funnel plot and by Egger’ s regression asymmetry test. Subgroup analyses were applied to determine the sources of heterogeneity.

Twenty-seven studies covering 9,061,675 individuals were included. Pooled analyses indicated that glaucoma increased the risk of all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and cognitive impairment. Subgroup analysis showed that the prevalence of dementia was 2.90 (95% CI: 1.45–5.77) in age ≥ 65 years and 2.07 (95% CI: 1.18–3.62) in age<65 years; the incidence rates in female glaucoma patients was 1.46 (95% CI: 1.06-2.00), respectively, which was no statistical significance in male patients. Among glaucoma types, POAG was more likely to develop dementia and cognitive impairment. There were also differences in regional distribution, with the highest prevalence in the Asia region, while glaucoma was not associated with dementia in Europe and North America regions.

Glaucoma increased the risk of subsequent cognitive impairment and dementia. The type of glaucoma, gender, age, and region composition of the study population may significantly affect the relationship between glaucoma and dementia.