Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Sep 14, 2026 2 hours ago
Migraine sufferers may face a significantly higher risk of developing glaucoma, according to a large systematic review and meta-analysis involving more than 3.6 million participants. The findings strengthen evidence of a possible connection between the common neurological disorder and a major cause of irreversible vision loss.
A major meta-analysis involving more than 3.6 million participants suggests migraine is associated with significantly
higher odds of developing glaucoma.
Researchers from Zhejiang Chinese Medical University and its Affiliated Third Hospital in Hangzhou, China, analyzed evidence from 19 studies examining the relationship between migraine and glaucoma. The findings could have important implications for understanding whether people with migraine represent a population requiring greater attention to long-term eye health.
More Than Three Million Participants Examined
For the analysis, researchers searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library from their inception through April 8, 2026. Eligible research included cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies investigating migraine and glaucoma.
Altogether, the 19 studies included 3,625,071 participants. The pooled analysis showed that people with migraine had significantly greater odds of glaucoma, with an odds ratio of 1.28 and a 95 percent confidence interval ranging from 1.20 to 1.37.
In practical terms, the pooled evidence indicated approximately 28 percent higher odds of glaucoma among people with migraine compared with those without migraine. However, this association should not be interpreted as proof that migraine directly causes glaucoma.
Association Remained After Statistical Adjustment
The researchers identified moderate heterogeneity between studies, with an I² value of 46.2 percent, indicating that study characteristics contributed to differences in the observed relationship.
Importantly, this
Thailand Medical News report notes that subgroup analyses revealed stronger migraine-glaucoma associations in studies conducted in America, research based in clinical settings, studies relying on self-reported migraine diagnoses, and populations in which women represented at least 60 percent of participants.
Egger's test also indicated possible publication bias, raising the possibility that the available scientific literature could overestimate the strength of the relationship.
Researchers therefore performed a trim-and-fill analysis that statistically imputed eight potentially missing studies. Even after this adjustment, migraine remained significantly associated with glaucoma, although the estimated effect decreased. The adjusted odds ratio was 1.23, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 1.13 to 1.34, suggesting approximately 23 percent higher odds.
Findings Point to an Important Eye Health Connection
The results provide substantial evidence that migraine is associated with elevated glaucoma risk, but important uncertainties remain. Differences in diagnostic metho
ds, study populations, geographic regions, and data sources influenced the magnitude of the association. Crucially, the analysis establishes an association rather than causation. Large prospective studies using standardized migraine and glaucoma definitions are now needed to determine whether shared vascular, neurological, genetic, or other biological mechanisms explain the relationship and whether migraine patients could benefit from targeted ophthalmic surveillance.
The study was published as an abstract in the peer-reviewed journal: Frontiers in Neurology. The full study will be published shortly.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2026.1890818/abstract
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