Evaluation of the effect of daily activities on intraocular pressure in healthy people: is the 20 mmHg border safe?

Purpose: The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the intraocular pressure (IOP) variations during daily activities such as reading, speaking and carrying in regard to investigating whether an elevation or decrease exists.

Subjects And Methods: Forty-four eyes of 44 healthy subjects were evaluated. The IOP was measured in relaxation and after reading, speaking and carrying a shopping bag for 5 min on different days, respectively. The subjects rested for 15 min between the activities. Mean initial IOP levels were compared with mean IOP levels after reading, speaking and carrying a shopping bag with paired t test. A p value of 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results: We observed no changes in mean IOP after reading (p = 0.188). Mean IOP was increased after speaking and carrying compared with mean basic IOP (p = 0.001 and p = 0.001, very significant, respectively). The mean IOP began to decrease 15 min after speaking and carrying and came back to the baseline values one hour later.

Conclusions: The IOP is not stable during daily activities. Simple actions such as carrying or speaking have an increasing effect on IOP. This should be taken into consideration in glaucoma patients during control measurements, especially in patients in whom the IOP was near to the 20 mmHg border.