Prevalence of blindness and visual impairment among Jordanian diabetics.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment among a population of Jordanian diabetics.


METHODS
A total of 986 diabetic patients were fully assessed, including complete history, examination, and laboratory tests. All patients underwent detailed eye examination, which included visual acuity, slit-lamp examination, tonometry, funduscopy, and fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA).


RESULTS
Of all patients examined, 53.2% were male and 46.8% were female. The mean age and duration of diabetes were 55.3 and 11.9 years. Of all patients, 93.3% had type 2 while 6.7% had type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). Over half (50.3%) were on oral hypoglycemic agents, 34% on insulin, and 14.5% on both types of treatment, whereas only 1.2% were on diet alone. The mean value for HbA1c was 7.7%. The prevalence of blindness among participants was found to be 7.4%, while 10.1% were visually impaired. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) was present in 64.1%, 37.8% had cataract, and 8.7% had undergone cataract surgery. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, visual impairment was significantly associated with age, treatment of diabetes, and DR, while only age and retinopathy were significantly related to blindness.


CONCLUSIONS
DM is a common disease in Jordan and DR is highly prevalent among Jordanian diabetics. National screening and educational programs are highly needed to reduce the risk of blindness and visual impairment among diabetic patients.
Al-Till
M I
MI
Ophthalmology Department, Jordan University Hospital, Amman, Jordan. mahaamr@hotmail.com
Al-Bdour
M D
MD
Ajlouni
K M
KM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001766:Blindness / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002386:Cataract / Q000453:epidemiology; D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007597:Jordan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*