Primary open‐angle glaucoma prevalence in Europe: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

AbstractPurpose: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of primary open‐angle glaucoma (POAG) in the European population > 40 years, and to provide the expected number of POAG patients forecasted up to 2050.Methods: Two authors independently conducted a systematic literature search on PubMed/MedLine, Web of Science, and Google Scholar to identify papers analysing the prevalence of POAG in European countries. Logit transformation (PLOGIT) of the data retrieved from selected articles, and a random intercept logistic regression model (GLMM) were used to analyse the overall proportions. The population projection data retrieved from the World Population Prospects reported by the United Nations, was incorporated into the GLMM. The estimated number of patients was calculated using the prevalence figures from the random‐effects model and the corresponding population number.Results: We retrieved 9348 eligible papers from the initial electronic search and included 10 of them in the qualitative and quantitative analyses. A total of 26 993 patients were included in this meta‐analysis (11 927 male and 14 556 female). We identified 755 POAG cases (397 male and 348 female), with a pooled prevalence estimate in Europe of 2.60% (95% CI: 1.90–3.56%). Increasing odds for POAG were related to increasing age and some geographic differences in the disease distribution in the continent were identified. Statistically significant sex‐related differences in the prevalence rate of POAG were not observed in this cohort. An increase of 3.3% in the number of people (aged >40 years) with POAG is expected by 2050, when the overall figure is expected to be 10 748 137.Conclusions: POAG is a neurodegenerative disease that affects a large proportion of the older European population. In the future, the prevalence of POAG is expected to grow in Europe because of the progressive ageing populations of Western countries.