Secular trends in the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy: the Hisayama Study

Abstract

Purpose : To examine the secular trends in the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in a Japanese community.

Methods : Residents of community-dwelling Japanese individuals aged 40 years or older participated in comprehensive ophthalmological surveys, which were conducted in 1998 (n=1775; participation rate=42.4%), 2007 (n=3119; 72.6%), 2012 (n=2948; 63.8%), and 2017 (n=3246; 65.7%). Diabetes was diagnosed based on 75g oral glucose tolerance test or fasting and/or casual plasma glucose level. Diabetic retinopathy was assessed due to color fundus photographs with pupil dilation according to the modified Airlie House classification system. Trends in the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy were tested by a logistic regression analysis with generalized estimating equation.

Results : The frequencies of diabetes among participants in ophthalmological surveys tended to increase with time, being 12.6% in 1998, 16.5% in 2007, 17.8% in 2012, and 19.3% in 2017 (p for trend = 0.26). On the contrary, the age-adjusted prevalence of diabetic retinopathy among subjects with diabetes decreased significantly from 1998 to 2017 (27.3% in 1998, 23.7% in 2007, 12.6% in 2012, and 7.4% in 2017; p for trend <0.01).

Conclusions : Our findings suggest that the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy among people with diabetes decreased significantly over the past two decades in a general Japanese population.

This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.