The prevalence of open angle glaucoma increases with age, with many patients also receiving medications for non-ocular systemic diseases. Little is known about how systemic medications impact on the need for adjunctive therapy with prostaglandin analogues (PGA).
To evaluate whether systemic medications for hypertension, cholesterol, or glucose influence the need for adjunctive intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering medications in patients using PGAs.
Pharmaceutical records from the Québec prescription database provided a sample of patients receiving prescriptions for bimatoprost, latanoprost, or travoprost, from which subjects receiving > or =1 prescription for antihypertensives, antidiabetics. diuretics, and statins were identified. Chi-square tests compared proportions using PGAs to those using PGAs + adjunctive therapy, based on the use or non-use of systemic medications; a logistic regression was performed post hoc to adjust for gender and age.
Of the 8548 evaluated patients (all using PGAs); 2934 (34.3%) took none of the studied systemic drugs. For the 5614 patients taking systemic medications, significantly fewer (p