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TUESDAY, June 15 (HealthDayNews) -- Daily pressure-lowering eye drops can delay or prevent the onset of glaucoma in black Americans at high risk for developing the disease.

That's the finding of a new study in the June issue of the journal Archives of Ophthalmology.

Glaucoma is caused by increasing pressure within the eye and affects more than 2.2 million Americans aged 40 and over. Experts estimate that half of individuals with glaucoma remain unaware they even have the disease.

The study in black Americans found that eye drops reduced the development of the most common form of glaucoma, primary open-angle glaucoma, by almost 50 percent. Just 8.4 percent of African-Americans who used the eye drops developed glaucoma, compared with 16.1 percent of those who did not receive the eye drops, the researchers report.

The findings indicate the urgency of identifying black Americans at higher risk for developing glaucoma so they can receive evaluation for possible treatment, the researchers said.

The Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study was funded by the U.S. National Eye Institute and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

This study is a follow-up to a previous study that found treating people with elevated eye pressure could delay or prevent glaucoma. In that study, results for blacks were inconclusive.

More Information

The U.S. National Eye Institute has more about glaucoma.