Prevalence of ocular fundus pathology with type 2 diabetes in a Chinese urban community as assessed by telescreening

OBJECTIVE: To describe the telescreening model and assess the prevalence of ocular fundus pathology in patients with type 2 diabetes within a Chinese urban community. DESIGN: Community-based cross-sectional study. SETTING: Healthcare centre of Fengyutan Community, Shenyang, China. PARTICIPANTS: A total 528 patients (287 females) with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) were randomly recruited using health files from the healthcare centre of Fengyutan community between 8 October and 20 November 2012. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Signs of any diabetic retinopathy (DR), signs of glaucoma and signs of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). RESULTS: The main ocular fundus pathologies were DR (75 patients, 14.20%), 65 (86.67%) cases of which were newly detected, AMD (57 patients, 10.79%) and glaucoma (63 patients, 11.93%). The risk factors for fundus pathology were long duration of diabetes (OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.87 to 2.56), and higher fasting plasma glucose (OR 3.64, 95% CI 1.81 to 5.21) and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels (OR 3.83, 95% CI 1.87 to 6.35). CONCLUSIONS: There was a high prevalence of fundus pathology among patients with type 2 diabetes, and in most of the cases, this was newly detected. Community screening for fundus pathology among patients with a long duration of type 2 diabetes and high fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c levels using a telescreening model will provide an effective strategy for the prevention and treatment of fundus pathology.