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Health services research
Research
Awareness of diabetic retinopathy and its association with attendance for systematic screening at the public primary care setting: a cross-sectional study in Hong Kong
  1. JinXiao Lian1,2,
  2. Sarah M McGhee3,
  3. Rita A Gangwani2,
  4. Cindy L K Lam4,
  5. Maurice K H Yap1,
  6. David S H Wong5
  1. 1 School of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
  2. 2 Department of Ophthalmology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  3. 3 School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  4. 4 Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  5. 5 Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr JinXiao Lian; jinxiao.lian{at}polyu.edu.hk

Abstract

Objective To assess the association between awareness of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and actual attendance for DR screening.

Design Cross-sectional study.

Setting Two public general outpatient clinics.

Participants The subjects were people with diabetes mellitus (DM) who participated in a randomised controlled trial, set up in 2008, to test the impact of a copayment on attendance for DR screening.

Primary and secondary outcome measures The subjects’ awareness of DR was evaluated using a structured questionnaire conducted via a telephone interview. The attendance for screening was from the actual attendance data. Association between awareness and attendance for screening was determined using multivariate logistic regression model and was reported as ORs.

Results A total of 2593 participants completed the questionnaire. A total of 42.9% (1113/2593) said they would worry if they had any vision loss and 79.6% (2063/2593) knew that DM could cause blindness. Only 17.5% (453/2593) knew that treatment was available for DR and 11.5% (297/2593) knew that early DR could be asymptomatic. The importance of having a regular eye examination was acknowledged by 75.7% (1964/2593), but 34% (881/2593) did not know how frequently their eyes should be examined. Worry about vision loss (OR=1.72, P<0.001), awareness of the importance of regular eye examination (OR=1.83, P=0.002) and awareness of the frequency of eye examinations (‘every year’ (OR=2.64, P<0.001) or ‘every 6 months’ (OR=3.27, P<0.001)) were the most significant factors associated with attendance.

Conclusions Deficits in knowledge of DR and screening were found among subjects with DM, and three awareness factors were associated with attendance for screening. These factors could be targeted for future interventions.

  • awareness
  • diabetic retinopathy screening
  • attendance

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019989

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors JXL analysed and interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript. SMM contributed to the design of the work, interpretation of data and revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. RAG contributed to the acquisition of the data and revised the manuscript critically. CLKM, MKHY and DSHW substantially contributed to the design of the work, acquisition of data and revised it critically for important content. All authors approved the final version to be published.

    • Funding This work was supported by the Health and Health Services Research Fund of the Hong Kong SAR Government (HHSRF: 06071021) and the Azalea (1972) Endowment Fund. The funding sources had no role in design or conduct of this research.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Ethics approval Ethics approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of The University of Hong Kong and HA West Cluster (Institutional Review Board Reference Number UW08-134).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement No additional data available.