Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy by the glycemic and blood pressure levels in an adult Japanese population: the Chikusei Eye Study

Abstract

Purpose : To access the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) by the hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and blood pressure (BP) levels in a Japanese population.

Methods : A cross-sectional community survey was conducted among residents of Chikusei in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. A total of 1988 participants aged 40 years or older underwent non-mydriatic fundus photographs of the both eye. The presence of any DR was defined as Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) levels ≥20 in either eye. We calculated the prevalence of DR by deciles of the distribution of the levels of HbA1c and/or BP.

Results : The overall prevalence of DR was 3.4% in this study sample. Assessing the prevalence of DR by distribution of the HbA1c or blood pressure levels, both measures were associated with retinopathy, and the prevalence increased especially in the tenth decile of each variable, corresponding to HbA1c level of >6.5% and BP level of >153mmHg. The prevalences of retinopathy in the tenth decile of the HbA1c and BP levels were 27.8% and 11.0% respectively, while those in the ninth decile were 8.5% and 6.7% respectively. Given that the participants have the tenth decile of BP, the prevalences of retinopathy in the ninth and tenth decile of the HbA1c increased by 24% and 50%.

Conclusions : The prevalence of DR in the ninth and tenth decile of the HbA1c was much higher in participants in the tenth decile of BP than in the others. Our findings suggest that narrowing the high risk participants of DR by the HbA1c and BP levels may be useful in mass screening.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.