The relationship between intraocular pressure and refractive error adjusting for age and central corneal thickness

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between intraocular pressure (IOP) and refractive errors after adjusting for age, central corneal thickness (CCT), and other related factors. METHODS: IOP, CCT and refractive errors were measured in the right eyes of 1855 subjects, aged 40-82 years, in a cross-sectional study design. Subjects were divided into groups by refractive status: hyperopia, emmetropia, mild myopia, moderate myopia, or high myopia. With adjustments for age, CCT, blood pressure, obesity, education, hypertension, diabetes, and smoking status, IOP was estimated for each refractive status using a general linear model. RESULTS: IOP increased with advancing degrees of myopia, even after adjustment for age, CCT, and other related factors (p = 0.011). Estimated IOP of moderate myopia was significantly higher than that of emmetropia (p = 0.022). CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm the positive association between IOP and increasing degrees of myopia. This finding would support the hypothesis that the relationship between glaucoma and myopia might be pressure mediated.