AUTHOR=Gupta Mehak , Singh Amarjeet , Duggal Mona , Singh Ramandeep , Bhadada Sanjay , Khanna Poonam 

TITLE=Natural History of Diabetic Retinopathy Through Retrospective Analysis in Type 2 Diabetic Patients—An Exploratory Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.791378

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2021.791378

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background and Aims:</bold> Diabetic retinopathy is the most common diabetes-associated microvascular complication and is among the leading causes of vision loss or blindness in the adult population. The present study is a retrospective study that reported the natural history of diabetic retinopathy.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Retrospective medical records of 170 patients aged &gt; 20 years with a confirmed complication of diabetic retinopathy were recruited into the present study. A questionnaire was also sent to each subject for gathering their experiences, and verification was done by the attending medical physicians. The questionnaire was answered by all recruited patients.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> The results showed that 23 (13.5%) subjects have a family history of diabetic retinopathy with 10 (5.9%) having mild NPDR, 63 (37.1%) with moderate NPDR, 60 (25.3%) have severe NPDR while 37 (21.8%) have PDR complications. The presence of co-morbidities was found in 139 (81.8%) subjects. Patients with PDR reported a significantly longer duration of diabetes mellitus with worse glycemic control.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> The study revealed and concluded that adherence to the prescribed management regimen is important, for which patient education was the key which was lacking.</p>