Presenting at the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting, researchers reported that children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) were about three times as likely to receive a new glaucoma diagnosis as matched peers without OSA. The retrospective analysis drew on U.S. electronic health records from 2016–2020 via the TriNetX platform, identifying 80,496 children with polysomnography-confirmed OSA and 2.6 million without.
After propensity matching, each cohort had 77,812 children with a median age of about 7.5 years. Glaucoma was diagnosed in 66 children with OSA (0.1%) and 30 controls (<0.1%), yielding a hazard ratio of 2.97. The unadjusted hazard ratio was 4.30. Preglaucoma and glaucoma suspect diagnoses were also more common in the OSA group.
The association mirrors what has been seen in adults, but this is the first large-scale, real-world study focused on children, said Ching-Chieh Lin of Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital. The mechanisms remain unclear, and an unadjusted link to open-angle glaucoma did not survive matching. Lin noted that all participants preserved visual function, and that early recognition of OSA could allow surveillance and timely management.