Background: Exercise may potentially provide an adjunctive measure to help control intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients. However, currently, there is still no substantial evidence that regular exercise can produce a prolonged effect of intraocular pressure reduction. We aim to determine the effects of regular exercise on intraocular pressure in healthy individuals.
Methods: We conducted a prospective, interventional study at the University of Malaya Medical Centre. Our subjects consist of 45 healthy participants in the intervention arm, and 38 healthy control participants who were age- and gender-matched. The intervention arm was enrolled into a supervised exercise programme for a 6-week period, where controls were asked to continue their usual daily lifestyle. The intervention consists of three sessions every week, which focused on aerobic exercise and strength training.
Results: Baseline intraocular pressure was measured, and then remeasured again at the end of 6 weeks of exercise conditioning. In the intervention group, there was a reduction of baseline intraocular pressure from pre-intervention mean intraocular pressure of 15.55 ± 2.63 mmHg, down to 13.36 ± 3.16 mmHg at 6 weeks, a statistically significant reduction of -2.18 ± 2.25 mmHg (p < 0.001) post-intervention. On the other hand, the control group recorded a non-statistically significant mean increase of 0.63 ± 2.47 mmHg (p = 0.123) at 6 weeks.
Conclusions: Our study concluded that regular exercise results in a significant intraocular pressure reduction in healthy individuals.
Keywords: Exercise; exercise; exercise conditioning; intraocular pressure.