High Prevalence of Diabetic Retinopathy and Nephropathy in Polynesians of Western Samoa

Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy and albuminuria are common in Polynesian Western Samoans. Duration of diabetes and level of glycemia were the most important associated factors. These data underline the need for cost-effective programs for the detection and early treatment of diabetes in Western Samoa and other developing populations with high susceptibility to NIDDM.

Population-Based Study of Nonproliferative Diabetic Retinopathy Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients in Kinmen, Taiwan

“…This is possible because early changes in NPDR are caused by capillary dilatation and leakage, which are associated with the status of hyperglycemia, glycemic control, and comorbidity status factors such as hypertension. 6,23,24 Consistent with previous studies, [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] our results show that the duration of diabetes is strongly associated with NPDR. This suggests that the duration of diabetes is an indicator for the deterioration of type 2 diabetes.…”

“…32 Table 5 presents the prevalence of DR in various types of diabetic populations. 7,8,10,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] In addition to differences in the diagnostic criteria, this disparity is largely due to the different sources of type 2 diabetes. Since subjects with DR in our study were identified among presymptomatic type 2 diabetic patients, a substantial proportion of patients had NPDR, and only a small proportion of diabetic patients had severe DR.…”

“…4 Early screening and appropriate intervention have been shown to be very effective in reducing visual loss and blindness attributed to DR. 5 The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) also showed that careful ophthalmic assessment is important, since DR is common in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients. 6 In addition, the duration of diabetes, [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] age at examination, 10,13 type of diabetes treatment, 14,15 blood pressure, 6,16 serum cholesterol, 7 and body mass index (BMI) 10 have been reported to be associated with DR among type 2 diabetic patients. The Wisconsin Epidemiologic Study of Diabetic Retinopathy (WESDR) showed that nearly all people with diabetes developed DR within 20 years after diagnosis and that approximately 10% of people with type 2 diabetes may have DR at the time of diagnosis.…”

Development and Progression of Diabetic Retinopathy in Koreans With NIDDM

“…Previous studies have shown that the prevalence or incidence of diabetic retinopathy is different among various ethnic groups (7)(8)(9). Chen et al (10) reported that the rate of progression to proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) is higher in Taiwan Chinese than that in Caucasians.…”

Incidence and Progression of Diabetic Retinopathy in Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites With Type 2 Diabetes. San Luis Valley Diabetes Study, Colorado

“…In the present study, the incidence and progression of diabetic retinopathy were examined to learn whether Hispanics had excess risk compared with NHWs with type 2 diabetes living in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. Because glucose control, hypertension, type of therapy, and diabetes duration, among other risk factors, are associated with diabetic retinopathy (1,4,(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), we also examined these and other factors to see if they accounted for altered Hispanic-to-NHW incidence rates.…”