One of the biggest problems for people with diabetes is controlling their blood sugar. They have to watch what they eat and continuously having to prick their finger to check their blood sugar. It’s a difficult disease to control, but if they don’t monitor their blood glucose, they could develop other health conditions such as vision loss. A new study finds that vision loss due to diabetes is rising globally and Latinos are at a higher risk to develop type 2 diabetes than others.
The study was published in the Diabetes Care journal by a global consortium led by researchers at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) College of Optometry in Fort Lauderdale/Davie, Florida, and the Vision and Eye Care Unit at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Researchers found that blindness and visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy (DR) increased significantly in the 20-year period researchers analyzed. In 2010, one in every 39 blind people was blind due to DR, which increased 27 percent since 1990. Of those with moderate or severe vision impairment, one in 52 people had vision loss attributed to diabetes, an alarming increase of 64 percent since 1990.
Poor control of glucose levels and lack of access to eye health services in many parts of the world are thought to contribute to this increase, according to the researchers. As more people live longer with diabetes, there is a higher risk of developing DR and subsequent vision loss.
According to the National Eye Institute, DR is a condition resulting from chronically high blood sugar from diabetes in which the delicate blood vessels in the lining of the inside of the eye (retina) become damaged and start leaking and distorting vision. In DR’s most advanced stage, new abnormal blood vessels grow, damaging the retina and leading to permanent scarring and vision impairment or blindness.
“Unfortunately diabetic retinopathy usually does not have any symptoms in the early stages,” says Janet Leasher, O.D., M.P.H., co-author of the report and a professor at NSU’s College of Optometry. “People diagnosed with diabetes should have a dilated eye health exam at least every year and be advised by their eye care practitioner for their personal situation. Patients should work closely with their health care provider to determine the best methods to control their blood sugar levels.”
In people older than 50, the greatest increase in the prevalence of blindness caused by DR occurred in South Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Latin America Central Sub-Saharan Africa. Those regions with the greatest increase in the prevalence of visual impairment caused by DR in this age group lived in Central, South and Tropical Latin America.