Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness, affecting 66 million individuals worldwide, with the majority manifesting blindness are from Asian countries (Stein, MD, MS, et al., 2011). The Unites States continues to experience a significant number of Asian immigrants consequently glaucoma is a degenerative disease that requires additional research and monitoring.
Japanese Americans are generally lumped into the Asian population health research and subsequently reported as a sub-population within the Asian population. This is not a fact when reporting all morbidities but it is prevalent when researching glaucoma.
There are several types of glaucoma the two principal types are primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG, also known as ACG) and primary open angle glaucoma (POAG also known as OCG). Two additional types of glaucoma are normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) and congenital glaucoma. …show more content…
NTG is caused by damage to the optic nerve even though the pressure in the eye is not very high. At this point the cause of NTG is not known.
Prevalence of glaucoma within the Japanese American population is contingent upon the type of glaucoma. However, the NTG rates among Japanese Americans are .73% higher in comparison to other races including white Americans who score at .34%. The OAG rate of Asian Americans is 6.52%, which is similar to the 6.4% of Latinos but higher than the 5.59% of white