Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine the prevalence of retinopathy and diabetic retinopathy in a general population.
Methods: :
The Tromsø Study is a repeated multipurpose population based study conducted in the municipality of Tromsø, Norway. The Tromsø Eye Study is a sub study of the Tromsø Study and from October 2007 to December 2008 retinal photography was performed on 6542 participants aged 38-87. All photos were graded for retinopathy by one single grader and masked for all other variables except for visual acuity, self reported cataract, glaucoma and age related macular degeneration. The retinopathy grading was based on "The International Clinical Diabetic Retinopathy and Diabetic Macular Edema Disease Severity Scales", with minor modifications. Retinal arterial and vein occlusions were excluded from the analysis.
Results: :
Results: A total of 6344 participants with at least one gradable eye were included in the analysis. Retinopathy was present in 13.8 % of the participants without diabetes but only 1 % had more than mild retinopathy. In the study population 6.3 % had diabetes and of those 29.2 % had any diabetic retinopathy, 2 % proliferative diabetic retinopathy and 4.3 % diabetic macular edema.
Conclusions: :
Retinopathy is a common finding in a general population and the prevalence in Tromsø is comparable to other studies. The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy was lower than in many other large studies, but higher than in previously published studies in Norway.
Keywords: diabetic retinopathy • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence