Blindness Due to Diabetes: Population-based Age- and Sex-specific Incidence Rates

✍ Scribed by Icks, A.; Trautner, C.; Haastert, B.; Berger, M.; Giani, G.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 118 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0742-3071
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9136(199707)14:7<571::aid-dia384>3.0.co;2-y

✦ Synopsis

Reducing the incidence of diabetic retinopathy and blindness was declared one of the main objectives in St Vincent. To date, hardly any valid data are available on the ageand sex-specific incidence of diabetes-related blindness. They are necessary, however, to evaluate intervention activities. Therefore, we used a population-based registry of blindness to calculate incidence of blindness due to diabetes. In one German district (Rhineland) we obtained complete lists of cases of blindness newly registered in 1990 and 1991 and coded as blind due to diabetes (n = 589). We estimated age-specific incidence rates in the entire as well as in the diabetic population. Incidence rates of blindness due to diabetes (100 000 -1 * year -1 ), standardized to the West-German population, were 3.2 (CI 95 %: 2.9;3.4) in the entire population and 60.5 (CI 95 %: 45.7;75.4) in the diabetic population. Incidence rates in the diabetic population showed a peak between 20 and 40 years of age, probably due to complications of Type 1 diabetes. Incidence was higher in diabetic women than in diabetic men (p Ͻ0.05 at ages Ն40 years). Repeating the study will detect a decrease in the incidence of blindness due to diabetes by one-third with over 99 % power.