The North Jutland County Diabetic Retinopathy Study Population Characteristics

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Aalborg Sygehus Syd, Denmark, Denmark
² Department of internal medicine, Aalborg Sygehus South, Denmark
³ Department of Mathematical Sciences, Aalborg University, Denmark
⁴ Department of Mathematical sciences, Aalborg University, Denmark

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: u19204{at}aas.nja.dk.

Accepted 10 April 2006

	Abstract

Aim: Several population based studies have reported blood glucose levels and blood pressure to be risk factors for the development of diabetic retinopathy. These studies were initiated more than two decades ago and may therefore reflect the treatment and population composition of a previous era suggesting new studies of the present diabetic population.

Methods: This cross-section study included 656 type 1 and 328 type 2 diabetic subjects. Crude prevalence rates for proliferative diabetic retinopathy, clinically significant macular oedema and several specific retinal lesions were assessed together with their association to a simplified and internationally approved retinal grading.

Results: The point prevalence of proliferative retinopathy was found to be 0.8 % and 0.3 % for type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Equivalent prevalence rates for clinically significant macular oedema were 7.9 % and 12.8 %, respectively. The most frequently occurring retinal manifestations were found increased in number up to retinopathy level 3 followed by decrease.

Conclusion: The point prevalence of proliferative retinopathy is lower than that of previous studies while it is increased for clinically significant macular oedema. These data suggest different risk factors for these clinical entities.