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One Third of Older Adults Untreated for Glaucoma
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, May 7, 2007 — Nearly one-third of older adults in the United States diagnosed with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) are going untreated.
According to findings presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, thirty percent of Medicare beneficiaries with primary open angle glaucoma did not use any glaucoma medication and did not undergo any type of glaucoma-related surgery in a given study year.
The researchers examined trends in glaucoma medication use and surgeries among adults ages 65 and older by analyzing data collected from 1992 through 2002 as part of the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey. A total of 3,020 participants were identified as having diagnosed primary open angle glaucoma.
“We have known that consistent use of effective medical therapies reduces patients’ risk for blindness due to glaucoma, yet we found that many patients are not benefiting from the availability of these increasingly effective therapies,” lead researcher Dr. Joshua D. Stein of Duke University in Durham, NC, said in a statement.
Source: UPI, ARVO