Acute exposure to air pollutants increase the risk of acute glaucoma

BACKGROUND: Ambient air pollution is related to the onset and progression of ocular disease. However, the effect of air pollutants on the acute glaucoma remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of air pollutants on the incidence of acute glaucoma (acute angle closure glaucoma and glaucomatocyclitic crisis) among adults. METHODS: We conducted a time-stratified case-crossover study based on the data of glaucoma outpatients from January, 2015 to Dec, 2021 in Shanghai, China. A conditional logistic regression model combined with a polynomial distributed lag model was applied for the statistical analysis. Each case serves as its own referent by comparing exposures on the day of the outpatient visit to the exposures on the other 3–4 control days on the same week, month and year. To fully capture the delayed effect of air pollution, we used a maximum lag of 7 days in main model. RESULTS: A total of 14,385 acute glaucoma outpatients were included in this study. We found exposure to PM(2.5), PM(10), nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) and carbon monoxide (CO) significantly increased the odds of outpatient visit for acute glaucoma. Wherein the odds of acute glaucoma related to PM(2.5) and NO(2) were higher and more sustained, with OR of 1.07 (95%CI: 1.03–1.11) and 1.12 (95% CI: 1.08–1.17) for an IQR increase over lag 0–3 days, than PM(10) and CO over lag 0–1 days (OR:1.03; 95% CI: 1.01–1.05; OR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.01–1.07). CONCLUSIONS: This case-crossover study provided first-hand evidence that air pollutants, especially PM(2.5) and NO(2), significantly increased risk of acute glaucoma. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-14078-9.