Diabetic blindness significantly reduced in the Warmia and Mazury Region of Poland: Saint Vincent Declaration targets achieved.
OBJECTIVE
The authors' aim was to verify if the targets of the Saint Vincent Declaration concerning the reduction of diabetes-related blindness in the Warmia and Mazury Region, Poland, had been achieved.


METHODS
A register of World Health Organization-defined blindness due to diabetes was conducted in the Warmia and Mazury Region between 1989 and 2004. The incidence rate of blindness as the number of new cases/100,000 diabetic population/year and 100,000 total population/year was estimated for three subperiods differing in political-economic system and diabetologic care delivery: 1989-1994, 1995-1999, and 2000-2004.


RESULTS
The major cause of blindness among diabetic patients was diabetic eye disease (97%). Out of 70 patients with Type 1 diabetes, 53% lost vision due to proliferative diabetologic vitreoretinopathy, 20% due to neovascularization with glaucoma, while clinically significant macula edema and cataract associated with proliferative diabetologic vitreoretinopathy or clinically significant macula edema predominated in 210 patients with Type 2 diabetes. The incidence rate of blindness due to diabetes in the diabetic population ranged from 102.4/100,000 (confidence interval [CI]: 65.7-139.0) to 13.3/100,000 (3.8-24.9). The incidence rate of blindness due to Type 1 diabetes ranged from 1.3/100,000 (CI: 0.5-2.2) to 0.1/100,000 (CI: -0.1-0.4). The incidence rate of blindness due to Type 2 diabetes was variable in the first subperiod, and it next decreased by 19% each year from 3.9/100,000 (CI: 2.5-5.3) to 0.7/100,000 (CI: 0.1-1.2); p<0.001.


CONCLUSIONS
The Saint Vincent Declaration target of reducing diabetes-related blindness by one third appears to have been achieved in the Warmia and Mazury Region.
Bandurska-Stankiewicz
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E
Endocrinology and Diabetology Ward, General District Hospital, Olsztyn, Poland. elbandurska@uninet.pl
Wiatr
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D
D001766:Blindness / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D009017:Morbidity / Q000639:trends; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D011379:Prognosis; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors