Prevalence of glaucoma in Eastern India: The Hooghly River Glaucoma Study

Abstract

Context:Glaucoma is the leading cause of global irreversible blindness. No recent study with adequate sample size has been carried out to estimate glaucoma prevalence in Eastern India.Aims:The aim of this study was to assess and compare the prevalence and types of glaucoma in a rural and urban East Indian population.Settings and Design:The Hooghly River Glaucoma Study (HRGS) is a population-based cross-sectional study from West Bengal. A tertiary hospital in Kolkata was our urban study center. Our rural study area included 28 contiguous villages from the district of Hooghly surrounding the rural base hospital located at Dhobapara in village Bakulia. Individuals aged 40 years and above were included in this study.Subjects and Methods:All subjects underwent a detailed ophthalmic examination at our base hospitals including applanation tonometry, ultrasound pachymetry, gonioscopy, and frequency doubling technology perimetry. Glaucoma was defined using modified International Society of Geographical and Epidemiological Ophthalmology criteria.Statistical Analysis Used:Analysis was performed using Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression using SPSS.Results:Totally, 14,092 individuals participated; 2.7% were detected to have glaucoma in rural arm and 3.23% in urban arm (P < 0.001). In urban population, 2.10% had primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), 0.97% had primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG), and 0.15% had secondary glaucoma. In rural population, 1.45% had POAG, 1.15% had ACG, and 0.10% had secondary glaucoma.Conclusions:HRGS is the largest population-based glaucoma study in India to date with glaucoma prevalence comparable to other landmark Indian studies. POAG was the most common form of glaucoma in our study population as well. PACG was more common in this region than previously thought.

Prevalence of Glaucoma in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Its Relation to Hypertension

“…Among the 750 patients, 93 (12.4%) had glaucoma, which is high compared to other studies done in general population 2,6 (Table 4) (Figure 4). In our study, glaucoma was significantly more in diabetic patients with HT53 (15.2%) than patients without HT40 (10.0%) p value significant at 0.05 level (Table 5) ( Figure 5).…”

Angle closure glaucoma in rural and urban populations in eastern India—The Hooghly River Glaucoma Study

“…The methodology of HRGS has been discussed in details elsewhere. [ 1 ] This cross-sectional study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee and adheres to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Kolkata city, our urban study area, is divided into 15 boroughs and 141 wards.…”

“…Glaucoma is the leading cause of global irreversible blindness[ 1 ] and an important public health issue. [ 2 ] Population-based studies are important for assessment of disease burden, health-care policy planning, and appropriate resource allocation.…”

“…[ 2 ] The Hooghly river glaucoma study (HRGS) is a population-based cross-sectional study from rural and urban populations in eastern India, which spanned from April 2011 to January 2014. [ 1 ] In the HRGS, primary angle closure disease (PACD), and primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) were defined as per ISGEO guidelines. [ 3 ] There is a wide variation in the reported prevalence of angle closure glaucoma (ACG) within India.…”

Glaucoma in Punjab- An Observational Study

“…13 Till now seven population based studies have been reported in India, out of which three are from Tamil Nadu, one from Andhra Pradesh, two from Bengal and one from Amritsar (Punjab). [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] All the seven studies have variation in prevalence data; it is because they have used different diagnostic criteria. There is a lack of data in Punjab and only one study so far is published.…”