Risk Factors Of Glaucoma ?

Awareness and early detection of glaucoma are extremely important because this disease can be successfully treated when diagnosed early. While everyone is at risk for glaucoma, certain people are at a much higher risk and need to be checked more frequently by their eye doctor. The major risk factors include:

• Age over 45 years

• Family history of glaucoma

• Diabetes

• History of elevated intraocular pressure

• Nearsightedness (high degree of myopia), which is the inability to see distant objects clearly

• History of injury to the eye

• Use of cortisone (steroids), either in the eye or systemically (orally or injected)

• Farsightedness (hyperopia), which is seeing distant objects better than close ones (Farsighted people may have narrow filtering angles, which predispose them to acute (sudden) attacks of closed-angle glaucoma.)