Abstract
Purpose :
To analyze 8 year prevalence, screening rate, visual impairment and treatment patterns of diabetic retinopathy among Koreans.
Methods :
Retrospective population base study of total Korean population of 48 million during 2006-2013. Retrospective analysis of Korean national health insurance claims database from 2006 to 2013 among total Korean population. The person specific annual prevalence of each diagnostic code for diabetes, diabetic retinopathy, dilated fundus examination, visual impairment, laser treatment, and vitrectomy were analyzed.
Results :
There was steady increase of prevalence of diabetic retinopathy which was 14.3% at 2006 and 15.9% at 2013. The peak age of diabetic retinopathy was 60-69 years. The high prevalence of diabetic retinopathy was noted among female diabetic patients when compared to that of male. The screening rate among diabetes improved from 24.3% at 2006 to 30.0% at 2013. Among patients with DR, there was constant decrease of proportions who received laser treatments (11.4% at 2006 6.9% at 2013) or vitrectomy. (2.4 % at 2006 1.7% at 2013) Also, trend for decrease of visual impairment among patients with DR was noted which was 2% (4,820/237,267) at 2006 and 0.08% (3,572/431,964) at 2013.
Conclusions :
Although rapid increase of diabetes among Koreans past decade, the annual prevalence of diabetic retinopathy maintained about 15 %. On the other hand, only 3 out of 10 diabetes received annual dilated fundus examination which needs improvement for screening rate among diabetes to reduce the risk of visual impairment from diabetic retinopathy.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.