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. 2020 Dec 17;4(2):e00197.
doi: 10.1002/edm2.197. eCollection 2021 Apr.

Risk factors associated with retinopathy in young people with type 1 diabetes in Bangladesh

Bedowra Zabeen  1 , Mohammad Zafar Khaled  2 , Lutful Husain  3 , Asma Aktar  4 , Kamrul Huda  5 , Yeasmin Afroz Kamal  6 , Nujhat Choudhury  2 , Kishwar Azad  7
Affiliations

Risk factors associated with retinopathy in young people with type 1 diabetes in Bangladesh

Bedowra Zabeen et al. Endocrinol Diabetes Metab. .

Abstract

Objectives: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most common microvascular complications seen in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of retinopathy and its association with other risk factors in young people with type 1 diabetes.

Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study, which was done as part of the ongoing complication assessment in the paediatric diabetes clinic in BIRDEM (Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation of Diabetes Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders), a tertiary care hospital. Children, adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes who were having diabetes duration >2 years were included in this study. Retinopathy was detected using fundal photography, and grading was done by National Screening Committee of UK by trained ophthalmologists.

Results: Diabetic retinopathy was observed in 44 (6.6%) patients. Majority (95.4%) of them had early diabetic retinopathy in the form of mild NPDR (nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy) (R1). Patients with retinopathy had higher HbA1c 9.6[8.4-12.3] vs 9.1 [7.9-10.8] (P = .013), longer duration of diabetes 7.6 [5.5-10.7] vs 6.0 [4.5-8.2] years (P = .001) and were older 21.5 [18.0-23.0] vs 18 [16.0-21.0] years (P = .0001) compared with those without retinopathy. On multivariate regression analysis, higher age and median HbA1c were significantly associated with DR.

Conclusions: Higher HbA1c was the only modifiable risk factor for development of DR in our study population. Early detection of DR with improvement of glycaemic control may reduce the risk of progression of severe stages of the disease.

Keywords: Bangladesh; retinopathy; risk factors; type 1 diabetes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Grading of Retinopathy among the type 1 diabetes patients
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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