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Like Anybody Needed Another Reason to Avoid Diabetes
During clinical research scientists test theories by comparing groups of volunteers (treatment vs. no treatment, etc.) to determine if relationships exist that identify unknown factors that contribute to a specific disease.
I like clinical research studies with HUGE numbers of volunteers because it tends to eliminate selection bias and subjective interpretation. When thousands of volunteers are studies there is less chance for sampling errors as compared to eight or eighty participants.
A soon-to-be-published study identified Type 2 diabetic females as being at greater risk for developing Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) compared to age-matched nondiabetic females. POAG is the most common type of glaucoma. Oh, yeah, the numbers. Over 76,000 women were eligible for the study. Was that number big enough for you? Researchers eliminated all of the known confounding variables that would unfairly tilt the results.
Here's a nutshell summary:
You likely know most of the chronic health problems linked to diabetes: peripheral neuropathy, kidney failure, high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic skin problems, retinopathy. Now we can add glaucoma to the list of anticipated diabetic complications.
There are 23 million diabetics in America and one-third do not know they are diabetic. Make sure you and your doctor confirm that you are not among America's invisible diabetics.
REFERENCE: Pasquale LR, Kang JH, Manson JE, et al. Prospective study of type 2 diabetes mellitus and risk of primary open-angle glaucoma in women. Ophthalmology 2006 (in press).
Related Topics: (WebMD Video) Diabetes Disaster: One Man's Struggle with Type 2 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes: New Cases Rising
Technorati Tags: glaucoma, diabetes, type 2 diabetes
I like clinical research studies with HUGE numbers of volunteers because it tends to eliminate selection bias and subjective interpretation. When thousands of volunteers are studies there is less chance for sampling errors as compared to eight or eighty participants.
A soon-to-be-published study identified Type 2 diabetic females as being at greater risk for developing Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) compared to age-matched nondiabetic females. POAG is the most common type of glaucoma. Oh, yeah, the numbers. Over 76,000 women were eligible for the study. Was that number big enough for you? Researchers eliminated all of the known confounding variables that would unfairly tilt the results.
Here's a nutshell summary:
After controlling for age, race, hypertension, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol intake, smoking and family history of glaucoma, Type II diabetes was positively associated with POAG. The association did not strengthen with longer duration of diabetes for duration less than five years compared with duration of five years or longer.
You likely know most of the chronic health problems linked to diabetes: peripheral neuropathy, kidney failure, high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic skin problems, retinopathy. Now we can add glaucoma to the list of anticipated diabetic complications.
There are 23 million diabetics in America and one-third do not know they are diabetic. Make sure you and your doctor confirm that you are not among America's invisible diabetics.
REFERENCE: Pasquale LR, Kang JH, Manson JE, et al. Prospective study of type 2 diabetes mellitus and risk of primary open-angle glaucoma in women. Ophthalmology 2006 (in press).
Related Topics: (WebMD Video) Diabetes Disaster: One Man's Struggle with Type 2 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes: New Cases Rising
Technorati Tags: glaucoma, diabetes, type 2 diabetes
