Muhammad Shafeh Shehzad, Muhammad Usayd Khan, Saqib Jan Shah, Aneeq Ullah Baig Mirza.
Prevalence of Visual Impairment among Indoor Diabetic patients at Teaching Hospital of Rawalpindi.
J Islamic Int Med Coll Jan ;15(3):183-7.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of blindness and partial sight among the indoor Diabetic patients of a teaching hospital. Study Design: Observational/cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The departments of Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Ophthalmology at Pakistan Railway Hospital Rawalpindi from 1 November 2018 to 30 November2019. Materials and Methods: History and clinical information of 200 indoor diabetic patients (400 eyes) admitted in the departments of Ophthalmology, Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrics & Gynecology were noted on organized and institutionalized questionnaire. Detailed ocular examination was performed by a qualified ophthalmologist. Only visual acuity (VA) criteria was used to define visual impairment. The data was evaluated using SPSS version 21. Results: Two hundred indoor diabetic patients (400 eyes) were included in the study. Among them 91 (45.5%) were males and 109 (54.5%) were females. The number of patients having age below 30 years were 7 (3.5%), between 30 to 60 years of age were 84 in number (42%) and 109 patients (54.5%) were over 60 years of age. No visual impairment was found in 38 patients (19%). There was partial sight in 97 patients (48.5) and blindness was recorded in 65 patients (32.5%) of the total. Cataract as the cause of visual impairment was found in 63 patients (38.8%). Diabetic retinopathy was the cause in 55 patients (33.9%). Diabetic macular edema was found in 35 patients (21.6%) and age-related macular degeneration in 7 patients (4.3%). Glaucoma was found in 2 patients (1.2%). Visual impairment in our patients was significantly associated with age, duration of diabetes, BMI, hypertension, heart disease, peripheral neuropathy, pregnancy (p<0.05). Conclusion: It is concluded that the prevalence of visual impairment among diabetic patients is quite high. There is an increased risk of visual impairment with the increase in the age, duration of diabetes and other associated risk factors such as hypertension, heart disease, increased BMI and peripheral neuropathy.

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