Studies suggest that there is a link between the prevalence of diabetes in young people who have nonrefractive visual impairment. Recent research has discovered that over 14 million people in just the United States over the age of 12 have visual impairment, with 11 million of these being linked to refractive errors. There are various causes for this but the most common are cataract, age-relate macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.
There have been previous studies into the link between diabetes and visual impairment – the eyes are one of the main organs to be affected by diabetes, with many patients developing visual conditions due to the disease. The results of the study were interesting and offer more in-depth information regarding this issue. The participants of the study were considered to have nonrefractive visual impairment if their vision was less than 20/40 when measured by an autorefractor. Several factors are linked to this, including poverty and old age, in addition to diabetes that’s been diagnosed at least ten years before.
The research gathered showed that the only risk factor which increased in its prevalence was diabetes, in the two time frames analysed. Those with diabetes that was diagnosed more than ten years prior showed a rise of more than 20 percent overall – non-Hispanic white people aged between 20 and 39 provided a range from 0.3 percent to 0.7 – this shows an increase of 133 percent overall. Further studies need to take place in order to gather more conclusive evidence into the link between these two factors. With a great number of people finding themselves suffering with ophthalmic issues due to diabetes, there needs to be more information for patients as to the risk of diabetes. If you think you might be at risk of diabetes, you should speak to your GP who can run tests for you.
Comments are closed.