HRB Open Res · May 13, 2026
Association between impaired lung function and glaucoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis
By De Paula D, Doran P, McCarthy C et al.
Background Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. It is a chronic, progressive, age-related fibrotic disease, frequently asymptomatic at early stages which progresses gradually, resulting in significant vision loss if undetected. Observational evidence suggests that impaired lung function is potentially associated with higher risk of glaucoma. If confirmed, this association could have implications for clinical practice. However, no systematic reviews or meta-analyses have evaluated these data. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate the association between impaired lung function and glaucoma and to identify the outcome measures commonly used in studies assessing lung function in relation to glaucoma risk. Methods The review will include searches in four electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science). Observational studies (e.g.: cross-sectional studies, cohort studies) will be eligible for inclusion. Secondary research sources, as well as grey literature will be excluded. Articles entirely not in English will be excluded as the team do not have the resources to facilitate translation. Screening of titles and abstracts, and full text screening of included articles will be carried out independently by two researchers. A narrative synthesis approach will be taken to analyse the extracted data. If a group of studies with a sufficiently comparable data is identified, a meta-analysis will be performed. Quality of included studies will be assessed using risk of bias tools. Conclusions The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis will advance our understanding of the “lung–eye axis” , through exploring the association of impaired lung function and glaucoma. Findings may potentially support biomarker discovery, highlight current gaps in research and contribute to patients’ stratification for targeted glaucoma screening in high-risk groups.