Information Sciences, Technologies and Architecture Research Center (ISTAR-IUL), Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Av. das Forças Armadas, 1649-026, Lisboa, Portugal.
Global Health and Tropical Medicine, GHTM, Associate Laboratory in Translation and Innovation Towards Global Health, LA-REAL, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, IHMT, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, UNL, Rua da Junqueira 100, 1349-008, Lisboa, Portugal.
Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 26;14(1):29389. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-80996-w.
Diabetic retinopathy screenings are a vital strategy to avoid the severe consequences of this disease. However, their success depends on the adherence of the target population. The present work aims to review the adherence to diabetic retinopathy screening, more specifically the influence of the persons with diabetes' social network (contacts between persons with diabetes) on their screening behaviour. The used data set comprises information of 75,921 persons with diabetes, distributed by 20 Primary Health Centre Groups of the Portuguese North Region. Persons with diabetes of the same Group were organized in an N-by-N matrix, resulting in 20 social networks. Network metrics were calculated and its relationship with the adherence to screening was analysed using two perspectives: correlation between global network metrics and adherence rate; cluster analyses based on node level metrics. The results obtained show that: (1) Less connected networks, strongly divided into communities and with a great number of connected components, present the highest adherence rates. (2) The node level metrics allow the identification of groups where the problem of non-adherence is especially high. (3) The non-adherence phenomenon is especially evident in a small group of highly connected individuals. We believe that these results are of utmost relevance as a starting point for future research and as support to the planning of interventions related to diabetic retinopathy screening adherence.
糖尿病视网膜病变筛查是避免这种疾病严重后果的重要策略。然而，其成功与否取决于目标人群的依从性。本研究旨在回顾糖尿病视网膜病变筛查的依从性，更具体地说，研究糖尿病患者的社会网络（糖尿病患者之间的联系）对其筛查行为的影响。所使用的数据集包含了来自葡萄牙北部地区 20 个初级保健中心组的 75921 名糖尿病患者的信息。同一组的糖尿病患者被组织成一个 N-by-N 矩阵，形成 20 个社会网络。计算了网络指标，并使用两种观点分析了其与筛查依从性的关系：全局网络指标与依从率之间的相关性；基于节点水平指标的聚类分析。结果表明：（1）连接较少、强烈分为社区且具有大量连接组件的网络具有最高的依从率。（2）节点水平指标可以识别出不依从问题特别严重的群体。（3）不依从现象在一小部分高度连接的个体中尤为明显。我们认为这些结果非常重要，可作为未来研究的起点，并为糖尿病视网膜病变筛查依从性相关干预措施的规划提供支持。
