Diabetic retinopathy screening for specialist care

Abstract

KEY MESSAGES: 1. The weighted prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy (STDR) among subjects was 41.8% and 10.4%, respectively. 2. Around 20% of subjects with diabetes who attended the studied hospital reported not having been offered DR screening before. The others had been offered it by the hospital diabetic clinic (41.0%, 431/1051), a general outpatient clinic (GOPC, 13.7%, 144/1051), the hospital ophthalmology department (8.4%, 88/1051) or the hospital family medicine clinic (8.4%, 88/1051). 3. Subjects attending the renal clinic and the cardiac clinic were less likely to be offered DR screening (renal: OR=0.48, P<0.001; cardiac: 0.60, P=0.003) and less likely to have appropriate DR screening in place (renal: OR=0.49, P<0.001; cardiac: OR=0.61, P=0.004) when compared to those attending the family medicine clinic. Subjects attending the renal clinic were more likely to have DR (OR=3.85, P<0.001) and STDR (OR=6.14, P<0.001) than those attending the family medicine clinic. 4. Subjects who attended a GOPC for diabetes care as well as a specialist clinic were more likely to have been offered DR screening (OR=2.05, P=0.001) and have appropriate DR screening in place (OR=2.09, P<0.001) than those who do not attend a GOPC. However, access to a GOPC was not significantly associated with the presence of DR and STDR.