Tajunisah I, Wong Ps, Tan Lt, Rokiah P, Reddy Sc
Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala, Lumpur, Malaysia.
Int J Ophthalmol. 2011;4(5):519-24. doi: 10.3980/j.issn.2222-3959.2011.05.12. Epub 2011 Oct 18.
To assess the awareness of eye complications and the prevalence of retinopathy, in the first visit to eye clinic, among type 2 diabetic patients attending a tertiary medical centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
An investigator-administered questionnaire was given to 137 patients with diabetes undergoing first time eye screening in the eye clinic. This was followed by a detailed fundus examination by a senior ophthalmologist to assess for presence of retinopathy.
Almost 86% of respondents were aware of diabetic eye complications, especially in patients who had achieved tertiary educational level (96.3%). The majority of the patients (78.8%) were referred by their physicians and only 20.4% came on their own initiative. Many of the patients (43.8%) did not know how frequent they should go for an eye check-up and 72.3% did not know what treatments were available. Lack of understanding on diabetic eye diseases (68.6%) was the main barrier for most patients for not coming for eye screening earlier. Despite a high level of awareness, only 21.9% had recorded HbA1c level of <6.5% while 31.4% were under the erroneous assumption of having a good blood sugar control. A total of 29.2% had diabetic retinopathy in their first visit eye testing.
In the present study, 29.2% of type 2 diabetic patients had retinopathy in their first time eye testing. Although the awareness of diabetic eye complications was high among first time eye screening patients, the appropriate eye care-seeking behavior was comparatively less and should be rectified to prevent the rise of this sight threatening eye disease.
评估在马来西亚吉隆坡一家三级医疗中心首次就诊眼科诊所的2型糖尿病患者中，眼部并发症的知晓情况及视网膜病变的患病率。
向137名在眼科诊所首次接受眼部筛查的糖尿病患者发放由调查员管理的问卷。随后由一位资深眼科医生进行详细的眼底检查，以评估是否存在视网膜病变。
近86%的受访者知晓糖尿病眼部并发症，尤其是受过高等教育的患者（96.3%）。大多数患者（78.8%）是由医生转诊而来，只有20.4%是主动前来。许多患者（43.8%）不知道应该多久进行一次眼部检查，72.3%的患者不知道有哪些治疗方法。对糖尿病眼病缺乏了解（68.6%）是大多数患者没有更早进行眼部筛查的主要障碍。尽管知晓率较高，但只有21.9%的患者糖化血红蛋白水平<6.5%，而31.4%的患者错误地认为自己血糖控制良好。在首次就诊眼部检查中，共有29.2%的患者患有糖尿病视网膜病变。
在本研究中，29.2%的2型糖尿病患者在首次眼部检查时患有视网膜病变。尽管首次眼部筛查患者对糖尿病眼部并发症的知晓率较高，但适当的寻求眼科护理行为相对较少，应予以纠正，以防止这种威胁视力的眼病发病率上升。
