Prevalence,Awareness, and Risk Factors of Diabetic Retinopathy among Adults with Known Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in an Urban Community in China

Purpose: To understand the prevalence, awareness, and risk factors for diabetic retinopathy (DR) among Chinese with known type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in eastern China communities.

Methods: A community-based survey including 913 patients with known T2DM was conducted in Suzhou, China. Diabetes was defined as hemoglobin A1c (hbA1c) ≥6.5%, use of diabetic medication or a physician diagnosis of diabetes. Retinal photographs were graded for the presence of DR using the Airlie House classification system. Binary logistic regression models were established to examine the associations of risk factors with DR and vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR).

Results: The overall prevalence of any DR was 18.0% (95% confidence interval CI]: 15.5–20.6%) in this population. VTDR affected 4.4% (95% CI: 3.1–5.8%) of the study participants. In multivariate analysis, the presence of DR among T2DM patients was associated with decreased age (odds ratio OR] = 0.97; p = 0.01; per year increase), longer durations of diabetes (OR = 1.02; per year increase; p = 0.03), higher blood levels of hbA1c (OR = 1.15; per unit increase; p = 0.03). Of the 158 participants with DR, only 12 (8%) had been aware of their condition or had been diagnosed previously as having DR.

Conclusions: The prevalence of DR among diabetes patients in eastern China was lower than those in northern China. The awareness of DR was poor, which emphasizes the pressing need for increasing the public awareness of this vision-threatening eye disorder and routine eye screening should be performed among T2DM patients in the communities.