Diabetic Retinopathy among Self-Reported Diabetics; A Population Based Study

ABSTRACT

DM is emerging as epidemic throughout the country in recent years. DM has been proved as potential threat for the visual impairment in India predominantly in rural population. Therefore, present study was designed to assess that prevalence of diabetic retinopathy among self reported DM patients in South India. Methods: The present study included 1990 randomly selected subjects of 50 years and above age group. Out of these subjects 100 participants gave a history of diabetes mellitus (DM). Assessment for diabetic retinopathy was independent of blood sugar levels in our study and based on a self reported history of diabetes. We elicited a history of current use of insulin to control diabetes. A modified classification of diabetic retinopathy based on the retinopathy levels used by Klein et al was used in our study. The presence of clinically significant macular oedema (CSMO) was assessed using indirect and direct ophthalmoscopy. Results: Results of the current study revealed that there was 27% prevalence of diabetic retinopathy among the self reported diabetic patients. Further, an increase prevalence of diabetic retinopathy with advance age was recorded in our study. However, this increase with age was statistically insignificant (p = >0.05). Similarly, there was an insignificant relation between sex and prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (p = >0.05). Conclusion: Findings of the present study suggest that there is remarkable prevalence of diabetes in population of South India. Further, prevalence of diabetic retinopathy was still more in self reported DM patients. This untreated diabetic retinopathy may leads to various degree of visual impairment in self reported DM patients. However, sustaining strict glycaemic control and regular ophthalmic examination help in preventing incidence of blindness in diabetic retinopathy patients.