MedWire News: A primary-care based study has shown that Type 2 diabetes patients of South–Asian ethnicity living in the UK have a significantly higher prevalence of diabetic retinopathy than their White–European counterparts.
Type 2 diabetes and its associated complications account for a high proportion of avoidable morbidity and premature mortality in the UK South–Asian population.
In a substudy of the United Kingdom Asian Diabetes Study (UKADS), Neil Raymond (University of Warwick, Coventry) and colleagues compared the prevalence and risk factors for diabetic retinopathy among UK residents of South–Asian and White–European ethnicity.
Retinal photographs and clinical data were collected for 421 UKADS patients and a comparison group of 614 White–European patients with Type 2 diabetes from the same geographical area.
Photographs were classified by qualified retinal photography graders.
The results, reported in the journal Diabetes Care, show that diabetic retinopathy was detected in 189 (45%) South Asians compared with 225 (37%) White Europeans. Sight-threatening retinopathy was detected in 68 (16%) South Asians versus 74 (12%) White Europeans.
Significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures, glycated hemoglobin, and cholesterol levels were also observed in the UKADS patients.
The South–Asian group in this study was younger at diagnosis and had a shorter duration of diabetes. The authors found that the differences in rates of retinopathy between the two groups were largely observed in those with a diabetes duration of less than 10 years.
“This emphasizes the need for effective screening and earlier diagnosis of diabetes among the South–Asian population and suggests that the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy in this group may be more aggressive than that in White Europeans,” write the authors.
They indicate that early detection of diabetes, annual referral for retinal screening, and intensive risk factor control will be key elements for addressing this health inequality.
MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009
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