Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy among adult diabetics in the rural and urban population

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness among working age adults around the world. Each year more and more people live with this condition, which can result in life-changing complications. Aim: To determine the prevalence and risk factors of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in screening programme, in order to estimate the future burden of the disease. Materials and methods: A cross sectional community based study was with purposive sample of adults with self- reported diabetes mellitus (DM) . A structured questionnaire was used to collect patient data. Ophthalmological evaluation was done and fundus was examined for grading DR using direct and indirect ophthalmoscope. Results: Among the 698 diabetic patients, mean age was 55.02±11.8 years (ranging from 24 to 91 years). 12.3% of diabetic were not under any treatment. Only 69.3% of patients had visited eye specialist for diabetic retinopathy screening. Prevalence of DR was found to be 15.3%; 13.9% had non-proliferative DR and 1.4% had proliferative DR. Prevalence of diabetic macular edema was 2.1%. In the binary-logistic regression analysis, duration of diabetes was associated with significantly increased risk of DR (OR: 1.13; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.09 to 1.17; p<0.001). History of absence of arterial hypertension decreased the risk of DR (OR: 0.56; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.87; p=0.01). Conclusion: One sixth of the patients with diabetes have retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy risk increased with duration of diabetes and decreased with history of no co-existing arterial hypertension.