ETHNICITY AND GLAUCOMA RISK
Glaucoma affects different population groups differently. Increasingly, studies show that some people are at greater risk for glaucoma than others and that glaucoma also manifests itself differently in various ethnic groups. African Americans and Asians are at particularly high risk for developing certain types of glaucoma. Researchers are also finding that glaucoma is more common among U.S. Hispanics than originally thought.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness among Americans of African ancestry. Clinical observations demonstrate that primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), the most common form of the disease, appears 10 years earlier in African Americans and progresses more rapidly. Glaucoma is about four times more common in African Americans than in people of European ancestry.
