Diabetics risk losing eyesight

Study says more than 50 p.c. patients visiting eye doctors are diabetics

More than half the patients visiting an eye doctor had had diabetes for over 10 years, 15 per cent of them for 20 years, making them high-risk groups for vision loss, says a multi-city India study on Diabetic Retinopathy (DR).

The study, conducted by the Public Health Foundation of India in collaboration with Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says 45 per cent of patients had lost their vision before they knew they suffered from DR.

Little awareness

“It’s clear there is a lack of awareness on diabetes and its obvious link to vision loss. Hyderabad is the diabetic capital of South Asia and screening and awareness campaigns should be more focussed,” said director of the Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad, G.V.S. Murthy told reporters.

Interestingly, the study said 40 per cent of the patients in public hospitals, and 13 per cent in private facilities, did not receive any information about diabetes and its complications from care givers. Fifty per cent private eye clinics acknowledged that there was a need to train their health workers on DR.

“Public health institutions in India should strive to provide one-stop service to diabetics. Patients should have access to diabetologists, kidney (nephrologist) and eye (ophthalmologist) doctor, foot check-up, dietician, and diagnostic services like urine and blood tests under one roof. There is also a need train personnel to detect DR,” said Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust CEO Astrid Bonfield.

State services fall short

The study acknowledged that government-run diabetic clinics did not have services on DR, 70 per cent of the facilities (public and private) had no dieticians, a third of the patients (33 per cent) received no health education on DR and two-third of DR patients did not know that diabetes is the reason for their condition.

“Early detection and management is the key to save patients from losing their vision. There is no organised screening and management programmes for DR in India and there is a need to evolve a sustainable model to control DR and reduce its risk by better control of diabetes,” summed up Dr. Astrid.

The study was conducted in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat, Pune, Jaipur, Bhubaneshwar, Madurai, Thiruvananthapuram and Noida and covered a total of 86 eye clinics, 73 diabetic facilities and nearly 850 patients in the last four months.