Screening for diabetic retinopathy by non-ophthalmologists: an effective public health tool.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate and report the reliability of detection and grading of diabetic retinopathy by direct ophthalmoscopy through a dilated pupil by general physicians (non-ophthalmologists) and optometrists who have undergone a short period of training.


METHODS
A total of 400 eyes of 200 diabetes patients were examined by two non-ophthalmologists. Their observations were compared with an ophthalmologist's diagnoses for the same patients.


RESULTS
The diagnoses made by the general physician (kappa = 0.8381, SE = 0.041) and the optometrist (kappa = 0.7186, SE = 0.051) showed good rates of agreement with the ophthalmologist's diagnoses.


CONCLUSIONS
The provision of appropriate screening protocols and follow-up parameters can enable primary care physicians and support personnel to reliably screen individuals for retinopathy in diabetes. This will reduce the workload of tertiary hospitals, and provide optimal services to the huge majority of the Indian population that has limited access to eye care services.
Verma
Lalit
L
Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110 029, India.
Prakash
Gunjan
G
Tewari
Hem K
HK
Gupta
Sanjeev K
SK
Murthy
G V S
GV
Sharma
Nisha
N
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001766:Blindness / Q000517:prevention & control; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009887:Ophthalmoscopy; D009907:Optometry / Q000592:standards*; D015980:Public Health Practice / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities