Diabetic retinopathy is as much a problem in Aboriginal communities as in the wider Australian population but presents a unique set of challenges for health services and for clinicians.

Results of the KRDRS show that despite a lower overall incidence of diabetic retinopathy among Aboriginal diabetics compared to the general Australian diabetic population, there are important reasons to consider Aboriginal diabetics at special risk. These reasons include the highest reported incidence of vision-threatening retinopathy in Australia, one of the highest ever reported incidences of CSME in the world and the likelihood that the severity of the problem may be underestimated because of the relatively short observation time and the low average time since diagnosis. It is also acknowledged that the small numbers in the study limit our ability to reliably detect progression between subsets of the population and much larger studies are required to make statistically significant comparisons.

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