The impact of glucosamine on age-related macular degeneration in patients: A nationwide, population-based cohort study

PURPOSE: To analyze the association between glucosamine (GlcN) use and the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) using claims data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). METHODS: A retrospective, population-based study was conducted with NHIRD data from a 14-year period (2000–2013). Chi-squared and Student’s t-tests were used to evaluate differences between the study and comparison cohorts for categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Risk factors for disease development were examined by the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) with 95% confidence interval. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to compare the cumulative risk of AMD between the two cohorts. RESULTS: In total, 1,344 patients with GlcN treatment were enrolled in the study cohort and 5,376 patients without GlcN use were enrolled in the comparison cohort. The incidence rate of AMD was lower with GlcN use (3.65%) than without GlcN use (5.26%) (P = 0.014). GlcN use was associated with a lower risk of developing AMD among patients with hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, other neurological disorders, or degenerative arthritis. Although the incidence of wet type AMD did not significantly differ (P = 0.91), the incidence of dry type AMD was lower in patients with GlcN use (2.9%) than those without GlcN use (4.84%) (P = 0.003). Kaplan-Meier analysis similarly revealed a lower rate of dry type AMD in patients with GlcN use compared to those without GlcN use (log-rank P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: GlcN treatment can decrease the risk of developing dry type AMD. Further prospective controlled studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of GlcN treatment in patients with AMD and the associated mechanism.