Increased Risk of Glaucoma in Patients with Sjogren's Syndrome: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

PurposeThe risk of glaucoma in patients suffering from Sjogren's syndrome has not been elucidated. We aimed for evaluating the absolute incidence as well as the relative risk of glaucoma in patients with SS at the level of the whole country population.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using a national health insurance database in Taiwan from 2000 to 2013. We used International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, to categorise medical conditions for study group and comparison group. We used Cox proportional hazard regression analysis to determine adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) of glaucoma between study and comparison group after adjusting for sex, age, and comorbidities.ResultsAmong 17,398 patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome, 133 patients were diagnosis with glaucoma during follow-up. Of the 69,592 non-primary Sjogren's syndrome patients, 429 patients developed glaucoma. Glaucoma risk was elevated in patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome than in the non-Sjogren's syndrome group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 2.274, 95% in the confidence interval [95% CI] 1.847-2.800; P < .001).ConclusionsThe risk of glaucoma among the population having Sjogren's syndrome was higher than those did not have Sjogren's syndrome. It indicated the necessity of regular examination for glaucoma in patients with Sjogren's syndrome.