Determinants of Intraocular Pressure of Glaucoma Patients: A Case Study at Menelik II Referral Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

The main theme of the paper is the well-known problem of glaucoma which is the main cause of blindness worldwide and is also considered a major public health issue. It is usually associated with intraocular pressure above the normal range. The normal range is considered to be 10-21mmHg. Elevated intraocular pressure is a major risk factor for the development and/or progression of glaucoma, and intraocular pressure reduction is a well-known treatment strategy for slowing the progression of the disease. The objective of this article is to identify factors/covariates which affect intraocular pressure on glaucoma patients taking into consideration various demographic, socio-economic, and clinical factors. A retrospective longitudinal cohort study was conducted; the study was based on data from all glaucoma patients who visit at least 3 times repeatedly six waves from January 2016 to December 2018 at Menelik II Referral Hospital Eye Clinic. Profile plots, univariate and multivariate linear mixed effect models were used to explore the major risk factors for the progression of intraocular pressure of a patient. The predictor variables gender (p-value=0.0218), occupation (p-value=0.0025), blood pressure (p-value, 0.0263), diabetes (p-value=0.0139), ocular problem (p-value=0.0290) and type of treatment (p-value=0.0176) found statistically significant effects on intraocular pressure of glaucoma patient. The interaction effects, i.e. time with age (p-value<.0001), time with ocular problem (p-value=0.0002), time with cataract surgery (p-value=0.0002), time with duration of treatment (p-value=0.0014) and time with type of treatment (p-value=0.0262) were found statistically significant on intraocular pressure of glaucoma patient.