[Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in the city of Badajoz 2002 (Extremadura project to prevent blindness)].

OBJECTIVE: To establish the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR), types and risk factors in a diabetic population in the city of Badajoz.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study, with prospective data collection, was performed in 2002 on 762 randomly selected diabetic patients belonging to two Primary Care Centers. We evaluated age, gender, type, treatment, duration of diabetes and blood pressure levels. Two color fundus photographs were taken and ophthalmoscopy performed on both eyes. Data were analyzed using SPSS (11.5).
RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 66.2 (DS 11.4) years, 4.7% were type 1 diabetics, 29% were insulin-treated and 52.8% had elevated blood pressure. Prevalence of DR was 29.8%, macular edema 1.4% and proliferative DR 4.8%. Multivariate analysis showed that patients with an evolution of between 5 and 10 years had a frequency 1.13 times higher (ORaj 1.13; IC 95% 0.68-1.88; p=0.648) than those of less than 5 years evolution, while those with more than 15 years evolution had a frequency 3.12 times higher (ORaj 3.12; IC 95% 1.85-5.26; p<0.001). Patients receiving treatment with oral antidiabetic agents had an RD prevalence 2.39 times higher (ORaj 2.39; IC 95% 1.21-4.74; p=0,012) than those treated with diet only. Patients treated with insulin had a 10.32 higher frequency (ORaj 10.32; IC 95% 5.07-21.00; p<0.001) than those treated with diet.
CONCLUSIONS: 29.8% of the diabetic population in the city of Badajoz is affected by DR. Although this prevalence is lower than that observed in previous studies performed by the same team, further studies should be carried out to detect risk sub-groups to allow us to act to decrease such a high prevalence.