Epidemiology

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is prevalent in around 35% of people with diabetes (1).

• Global prevalence of proliferative DR (PDR) among patients with diabetes is estimated to be 7.5%.
• Prevalence of any DR and PDR was higher in those with type 1 diabetes, compared to those with type 2 diabetes (2).

DR is the leading cause of blindness among the working-age group (20-64 years) in developed countries.

• The prevalence of blindness caused by DR is increasing despite the availability of effective treatment.
  • In England, Wales, and Scotland between February 1999 and March 2000, the number of patients on the blind register as a result of diabetic retinopathy in working age group was 2.05 per 100,000 population compared with 1.26 per 100,000 population in 1990-1 (3).

Around one third of DR patients are afflicted with vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR), defined as severe non-proliferative DR or proliferative DR (PDR) or the presence of diabetic macular oedema (DME).

• PDR is the most common vision threatening lesion especially in type 1 diabetes patients.
• DME is responsible for most of the visual loss experienced by patients with diabetes as it remains the major cause of vision loss in the highly prevalent type 2 diabetes (2).

Reference:

1. Das A et al. New treatments for diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2015;17(3):219-30.
2. Lee R et al. Epidemiology of diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema and related vision loss. Eye Vis (Lond). 2015; 2: 17.
3. Ockrim Z, Yorston D. Managing diabetic retinopathy. BMJ. 2010;341:c5400.