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. 2020 Oct 18;13(10):1642-1651.
doi: 10.18240/ijo.2020.10.20. eCollection 2020.

Prevalence and associations of non-retinopathy ocular conditions among older Australians with self-reported diabetes: The National Eye Health Survey

Joshua Foreman  1   2 , Stuart Keel  1   2 , Myra B McGuinness  1   2 , Jonathan G Crowston  1   2 , Hugh R Taylor  3 , Mohamed Dirani  1   4
Affiliations

Prevalence and associations of non-retinopathy ocular conditions among older Australians with self-reported diabetes: The National Eye Health Survey

Joshua Foreman et al. Int J Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

Aim: To determine the prevalence and associations of non-retinopathy ocular conditions among older Australian adults with diabetes.

Methods: Multistage random-cluster sampling was used to select 3098 non-indigenous Australians aged 50y or older (46.4% male) and 1738 indigenous Australians aged 40y or older (41.1% male) from all levels of geographic remoteness in Australia. Participants underwent a standardised questionnaire to ascertain diabetes history, and a clinical examination to identify eye disease. We determined the prevalence of uncorrected refractive error, visually significant cataract, cataract surgery, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, ocular hypertension, retinal vein occlusion and epiretinal membrane among those with and without self-reported diabetes.

Results: Participants with self-reported diabetes had a higher prevalence of cataract surgery than those without diabetes (28.8% vs 16.9%, OR 1.78, 95%CI: 1.35-2.34 among non-indigenous Australians, and 11.3% vs 5.2%, OR 1.62, 95%CI: 1.22-2.14 among indigenous Australians). Diabetic retinopathy (DR) increased the odds of cataract surgery among self-reported diabetic indigenous and non-indigenous Australians (OR 1.89, P=0.004 and OR 2.33, P<0.001 respectively). Having diabetes for ≥20y and having vision-threatening DR increased the odds of cataract surgery among indigenous Australians with diabetes (OR 3.73, P=0.001 and 7.58, P<0.001, respectively).

Conclusion: Most non-retinopathy ocular conditions are not associated with self-reported diabetes. However, to account for Australia's worsening diabetes epidemic, interventions to reduce the impact of diabetes-related blindness should include increased cataract surgery services.

Keywords: cataract; diabetes; national survey; prevalence; public health; retinopathy.

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