Article Text
Abstract
Research question The current population-based study aimed to investigate the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and risk factors among residents over 40 years old in the rural area of Dongguan, southern China.
Study design The Dongguan Eye Study was a population-based study from September 2011 to February 2012.
Setting The area was set in the rural area of Dongguan, southern China.
Participants Adult rural population aged 40 or older.
Intervention Participants underwent haematological, physical, ophthalmic examinations and completed a questionnaire regarding lifestyles and systemic medical conditions.
Primary and secondary outcome measures The frequency and risk factors of visual impairment and the major vision-threatening eye diseases.
Results Of the 8952 Han Chinese, 1500 were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with an average age of 59.5±11.1 years, and 1310 participants with fundus photography results were analysed. Standardised prevalence rate of DR was 18.2% for all patients with diabetes, 32.8% for the patients with previously diagnosed diabetes and 12.6% for newly diagnosed patients with T2DM. The prevalence rate of male DR was significantly higher than that of female DR (23.0% vs 14.1%, p<0.001). No significant difference was found in age-specific prevalence of DR. In diabetic patients, the prevalence rates of vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular oedema and clinically significant macular oedema were 2.5%, 2.8% and 0.9%, respectively. Male gender, higher education level, longer duration of diabetes mellitus (DM), higher systolic blood pressure and glycosylated haemoglobin were independent risk factors for DR development in patients with diabetes.
Conclusion A relatively lower prevalence of DR was found among the participants with T2DM in residents over 40 years in the rural area of southern China. Thus, an ophthalmic examination is recommended, especially for individuals with DM and DR risk factors. There is a need to increase awareness and education on DM and DR, especially in subjects with DR risk factors to reduce the incidence of DR and macular oedema.
- diabetes mellitus
- diabetic retinopathy
- epidemiology
- prevalence
- risk factors
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Footnotes
YC and MZ contributed equally.
Correction notice This article has been corrected since it was published.
Contributors QM, HG and YC designed the study and wrote the main manuscript text. QM, YC, MZ, LiaZ, LixZ and QL collected and managed the data. MQ, CY, ZL, GZ and JK analysed and interpreted the data. All authors approved the manuscript.
Funding This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, Beijing, China (81371031), the Guangdong Science and Technology Project, Guangzhou, China (2013B021800185 and 2014A020212231), the Guangdong Medical Research Funded Project, Guangzhou, China (A2014042, A2016309 and A2019266), and Guangdong Natural Science Foundation, Guangzhou, China (2017A030313609). The funding organisations had no role in the design or conduct of this research.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Obtained.
Ethics approval The study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the ethics committee of Dongguan People's Hospital.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement Data are available upon reasonable request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.