Screening for diabetic retinopathy and reduced vision among Indigenous Australians in Top End primary care health services: a TEAMSnet sub-study.

BACKGROUND

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) prevalence is higher in Indigenous Australians than in other Australians and is a major cause of vision loss. Consequently, timely screening and treatment is paramount, and annual eye screening is recommended for Indigenous Australians.

AIMS

To assess the prevalence of DR, reduced vision and DR treatment coverage among Indigenous Australian adults with diabetes attending Top End indigenous primary care health services.

METHODS

A cross-sectional DR screening study conducted from November 2013 to December 2015 in two very remote Northern Territory Aboriginal primary healthcare services.

RESULTS

In 287 subjects, the prevalence of non-proliferative DR, proliferative DR and clinically significant diabetic macular oedema was 37.3%, 5.4% and 9.0% respectively. Treatment coverage for PDR was 60% (of 10 patients) and for CSMO was 17% (of 23 patients). Vision data were available from 122 participants at one site. The proportion with normal vision, reduced vision, impaired vision and blindness was 31.1%, 52.5%, 15.6% and 0.8% respectively. Overall, ungradable monocular image sets (46%) were associated with poorer quality images and missing protocol images (both P < 0.001). Ungradable images for DR were associated with presence of small pupils/media opacities (P < 0.001). Ungradable images for diabetic macular oedema were associated with poorer image quality (P < 0.001), cataracts (P < 0.001) and small pupils (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS

A high prevalence of DR, CSMO and impaired vision was noted in Indigenous Australians with diabetes. Screening in primary care is feasible, but more effective screening methods are needed.