Aboriginal people with diabetes at high risk for vision-threatening retinopathy

The incidence of vision-threatening retinopathy among Aborigines with diabetes is the highest reported in Australia, according to a cross-sectional study. In addition, the rate of clinically significant macular edema in this population was “one of the highest ever reported,” the study authors said. For these reasons, Aborigines with diabetes should be considered “at special risk” for retinopathy, according to Nandor Jaross, MD, FDO, PhD, and colleagues.

The researchers analyzed data from the Katherine Region Diabetic Retinopathy Study, carried out in the Northern Territory between 1993 and 1996. Of 477 subjects identified with diabetes, 96 were included in surveys in both 1993 and 1996 and qualified for the longitudinal study.

The annual incidence rates of retinopathy in the study population were 5.6% in subjects and 4.2% in eyes. In the overall Australian population with diabetes, the incidence is 8%. In the aboriginal group, however, each year 1.2% of subjects with no previous existing retinopathy developed vision-threatening retinopathy.

The incidence of maculopathy in the population of Aborigines with diabetes was 2.2%, and the incidence of clinically significant macular edema was 1.1%. The annual progression to clinically significant macular edema in eyes with maculopathy was 4.8%.

The study is published in the February issue of Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology.