Abstract
Purpose :
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness that affects one third of the diabetic population worldwide. The prevalence of this condition is only expected to grow with estimates of 16 million American’s being affected by DR by 2050. The purpose of this study was to complete a descriptive study of patients with DR in the United States among tens of millions of patients.
Methods :
53,287 and 345,420 patients with Type 1 (T1) and Type 2 (T2) DR were identified in the TriNetX database (a combined electronic health records database of over 50 systems) utilizing encounter ICD codes. Data was gathered ondemographics, average body mass index (BMI), and average glycated hemoglobin (A1C) values. Proportions, percentages, and chi-square tests were calculated to evaluate T1 and T2 DR.
Results :
Of the 74 million patients, 0.77% and 6.1% of patients had T1 or T2 diabetes. Of those patients, 9.3% of T1 and 7.1% of T2 had DR. When comparing ethnicity among those with T2 DR, the odds of DR among those who were Black was 1.41 times the odds of DR among those who were white (CI 1.40, 1.42). This opposite disparity was found among those with T1 DR who were Black as it was 0.96 times the odds of DR among those who were white (CI 0.94, 0.97). Additionally, when calculating the odds of Black women having T2 DR, they were 1.04 times more likely to have DR then Black men (CI 1.03, 1.05). This was similar in T1 DR patients where Black women were also more likely than Black men to have DR with an odds ratio of 1.08 (CI 1.04, 1.12). When comparing men and women who were white who had T2 DR, the odds ratio was 1 indicating no difference between genders (CI 0.99, 1.01) whereas in T1 DR, the odds of being a white woman was 1.04 (CI 1.04, 1.06). Lastly, the odds of having T1 or T2 diabetes without DR among white women was 0.79 and 0.80 times the odds compared to white men (CI 0.78, 0.79; 0.8, 0.8). A comparison of A1C levels and BMI did not find any significant differences between gender or ethnicity (p>0.001).
Conclusions :
This large population descriptive study highlights increased odds of DR in Black individuals with T2 diabetes compared to white individuals and an increase in all types of DR in Black women compared to black men. Further research is needed to understand why these differences exist.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.