Prevalence and Factors Associated with Diabetic Retinopathy in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients in Suburban of Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

The cross-sectional descriptive research aimed to assess prevalence and risk factors of diabetic retinopathy among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in the suburban area of Chiang Mai province. The purposively sampled 450 patients with type 2 DM were examined by retinal detectors. The duration of study was between 1 October 2019 and 31 December 2020. Analyses of the demographic data and the prevalence rate relied on descriptive statistics, while the test for correlation between the factors and diabetic retinopathy employed the multiple logistic regression with an adjusted odds ratio at 95% confidence interval. The study found that 9.33% of the patients having type 2 DM proceeded to diabetic retinopathy. By examining the correlation between the factors and diabetic retinopathy, the findings revealed that the patients with DM for more than 10 years had 4.27 times more likely to develop diabetic retinopathy (95%CI=2.08-8.75) than those whose DM was less than 10 years. The patients with total cholesterol level more than 200 mg/dL were 2.28 times more likely to develop diabetic retinopathy (95%CI=1.06-4.90) than those whose cholesterol less than 200 mg/dL. Lastly, the patients with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level more than 100 mg/dL were 3.17 times more likely to develop diabetic retinopathy (95%CI=1.44-7.01) than those whose LDL less than 100 mg/dL. Therefore, the screening of diabetic retinopathy should be regularly performed, especially in the patients who have a long duration of DM and have high blood cholesterol and LDL levels.