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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Appathurai Balamurugan, MD, MPH, Epidemiology, Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services/ University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, P.O.Box 1437, Slot H-32, Little Rock, AR 72203-1437, 501 280 4830, Appathurai.Balamurugan@arkansas.gov, Neha Thakkar, MBA, Center for Health Statistics, Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services, P.O.Box 1437, Slot H-19, Little Rock, AR 72203-1437, and Masil George, MD, Ophthalmology, University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, W. Markham, Little Rock, AR 72205.

Rationale: Diabetic Retinopathy is a leading cause of blindness. Forty percent of people with diabetes develop retinopathy at some point during the course of their disease. Understanding the characteristics of people diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy will help foster early preventive measures to combat vision loss among people with diabetes.

Methods: A self-reported doctor-diagnosed diabetic retinopathy question was included in the Arkansas Behavioral Risk Factor survey since the year 2000. The data from the surveys for the years 2000-2004 were combined (N=1480) to study the characteristics of people with diabetic retinopathy. The data were weighted to the population so that the results could be generalized. SAS version 9.1 was used for the analysis. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to study the characteristics of people with diabetic retinopathy.

Results: Twenty three percent of people with diabetes had been diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy during the period 2000-2004, based on the survey. It affected all age, gender, race, income and education groups. Based on the multivariate analyses, males (OR=1.60, 95% CI 1.16, 2.19), blacks (OR=1.95, 95% CI 1.27, 3.00), people with diabetes for more than 10 years (OR=2.36, 95% CI 1.61, 3.47), people with diabetes who had foot sores (OR=2.17, 95% CI 1.46, 3.22), and people on insulin treatment (OR=2.72, 95% CI 1.91, 3.88) were more likely to have been diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy.

Conclusion: A better understanding of the characteristics of people with diabetic retinopathy will help us in early identification of those at risk and promote preventive care measures.

Learning Objectives: