Researchers recently confirmed the association between older age and worse visual field (VF) mean deviation (MD) at baseline with more rapid glaucomatous VF progression.

This retrospective, multisite study evaluated 84,711 VF tests from 8,167 eyes of 5,644 patients older than 18 who had been followed for at least five years. The global MD rate (MDR) and pointwise total deviation rate (TDR) of VF progression were calculated for each eye and then compared with baseline age and MD.

The team found that baseline age and MD were associated with faster progression, with all parameters qualifying as statistically significant. They noted that each year increase in baseline age increased the odds of being a rapid progressor by a factor of 1.033, and each unit increase in baseline MD decreased the odds by a factor of 0.8821. They added that the mean pointwise TDR ranged from -0.21dB/year to -0.55dB/year, with the most rapid pointwise progression observed in the nasal and paracentral regions of the field.

“The effect of age on MDR is influenced by baseline MD severity, supporting the importance of early detection and more aggressive therapy in older patients with worse VF damage,” the study authors concluded in their paper.