IDF Diabetes Atlas: A review of studies utilising retinal photography on the global prevalence of diabetes related retinopathy between 2015 and 2018

R. L. Thomas, S. Halim, S. Gurudas, S. Sivaprasad, D. R. Owens

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

244 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Aims: The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) world-wide from articles published since 2015 where the assessment of the presence and severity of DR was based on retinal images. Methods: A total of 4 databases were searched for the MESH terms diabetic retinopathy and prevalence. Of 112 publications 32 studies were included and individual data pooled for analysis. The presence of any DR or diabetic macular edema (DME) was recorded and severity as mild, moderate or severe non-proliferative DR (NPDR), proliferative DR (PDR) and DME and/or clinically significant macular edema (CSME). The level of severity of DR reported refer to persons with diabetes and not individual eyes. Results: The global prevalence of DR and DME, for the period 2015 to 2019 were 27.0% for any DR comprising of 25.2%, NPDR, 1.4% PDR and 4.6% DME. The lowest prevalence was in Europe at 20.6% and South East Asia at 12.5% and highest in Africa at 33.8%, Middle East and North Africa 33.8%, and the Western Pacific region at 36.2%. Conclusions: This study illustrated difficulties in deriving a meaningful global prevalence rate for DR and DME due to the lack of uniformity in defining the study populations, methodological differences, retinal image capture and grading criteria. Therefore, international consensus is required using a minimal data set for future studies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107840
JournalDiabetes Research and Clinical Practice
Volume157
Early online date14 Nov 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
There was no direct funding source for this study although the Diabetes Research Unit Cymru is funded by Health and Care Research Wales and Sandra Halim and Sarega Gurudas are funded by the UKRI Global Challenge Research Fund (MR/P027881/1) they did not have any involvement in the study design or content of this publication. Appendix A

Funding Information:
We would like to thank the librarians at Swansea Bay University Health Board, both Singleton and Morriston hospitals, who performed the searches, sourced the references and updated the searches during the project. None. DRO and RLT prepared the manuscript. RLT created all forest plots and analysed the data. DRO, SH and SG read all abstracts and decided on those included or excluded as well as extracted all data and double checked to ensure correctness. All authors including SS discussed the study and decided on the search strategy and combination of data as well as reviewing the manuscript. There was no direct funding source for this study although the Diabetes Research Unit Cymru is funded by Health and Care Research Wales and Sandra Halim and Sarega Gurudas are funded by the UKRI Global Challenge Research Fund (MR/P027881/1) they did not have any involvement in the study design or content of this publication.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Diabetes retinopathy
  • Prevalence
  • Diabetes mellitus

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Internal Medicine
  • Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
  • Endocrinology

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