Bottom Line: The odds of having diabetic macular edema (DME), a leading cause of vision loss in patients with diabetes mellitus, appears to be higher in non-Hispanic black patients than white patients, as well as in those individuals who have had diabetes longer and have higher levels of hemoglobin A1c.
Author: Rohit Varma, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues.
Background: About 347 million people worldwide have diabetes and diabetic eye disease is a leading cause of vision loss in patients between the ages of 20 and 74 years. Although the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) has been well characterized, less is known about the prevalence of DME among patients with diabetes in the United States.
How the Study Was Conducted: The authors sought to estimate the prevalence of DME, as well as factors associated with the condition in adults. The study was an analysis of 1,038 patients age 40 and older with diabetes and valid eye photographs in the 2005 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Results: Of the 1,038 individuals, 55 of them had DME, for an overall prevalence of 3.8 percent or estimated to be approximately 746,000 people in the 2010 U.S. population age 40 or older. There were no differences in prevalence by age or sex. But other factors associated with higher odds of having the condition include being non-Hispanic black, having diabetes longer and having higher levels of hemoglobin A1c.
Discussion: "Given recent treatment advances in reducing vision loss and preserving vison in DME, it is imperative that all persons with diabetes receive early screening; this recommendation is even more important for those individuals at higher risk for DME."
(JAMA Ophthalmol. Published online August 14, 2014. doi:10.1001/.jamaopthalmol.2014.2854. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)
Editor's Note: Authors made conflict of interest. This study was supported by a grant from Genentech/Roche to The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Please see article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
Media Advisory: To contact author Rohit Varma, M.D., M.P.H., call Alison Trinidad at 323-442-3941 or email alison.trinidad@usc.edu.
To place an electronic embedded link to this study in your story: The link for this study will be live at the embargo time: http://archopht.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamaophthalmology.2014.2854.
Journal
JAMA Ophthalmology