Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy in Japanese-Brazilian Population

Abstract

Abstract: : Purpose:To determine the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (DM2) and diabetic retinopathy in Japanese-Brazilian population living in Bauru City, São Paulo State, Brazil. Methods: In 1997, 435 Japanese-Brazilian families were visited in Bauru City and 1,751 subjects from the first (issei) and second (nisei) generations over 30 years old were identified. All the population aged 30 years or over was recruited to participate in clinical examinations and laboratorial procedures including fasting glucose test and 75g oral glucose tolerance test. During Nov 1999 to Dec 2000, 1,330 patients were examined. From the 482 subjects classified as type 2 diabetic according to the WHO criteria-1999, 382 were submitted to complete ophthalmic examination. In those with retinopathy, fluorescein angiography and fundus stereophoto were done and classified according to ETDRS criteria. Results: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Japanese-Brazilian population was 36.2% (95% CI: 33.6-38.8%), isolated impaired fasting glucose (IFG) was 19.3% (95%CI:17.2-21.5%) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) was 23.4% (95% CI: 21.1-25.8%). The prevalence of retinopathy (PR) was 8.4% (95% CI:5.6%-11.2%) and the duration of DM2 was 8.46±1.44 years higher in patients with retinopathy than in patients without retinopathy (p<0.001). No difference in the PR was observed between first (7.9%) and second generations (8.5%)(p=0.87). The PR in women (12.0%) was higher than in men (5.1%) (p=0.02). It was observed that 33.3% of the subjects from the issei group and 57.69% from the nisei group showed severe non-proliferative or proliferative retinopathy and the mean duration of diabetes in these groups was 10.93±1.42 years (p<0.05). Conclusions: High prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Japanese-Brazilian population was observed and diabetic retinopathy was shown more frequently in women. The high frequence of severe retinopathy showed that early diagnosis and periodical ophthalmic examinations are necessary to prevent the development of visual impairment.

Keywords: diabetic retinopathy • diabetes • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: pre