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PURPOSE: To assess diabetic retinopathy prevalence and its risk factors in a society with type 2 diabetes epidemic using the Saudi National Diabetes Registry (SNDR). METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study using patient's clinical data found in SNDR data base. A cohort of 50,464 Saudi patients with type 2 diabetes aged ≥25 years were selected to assess for the prevalence and risk factors for diabetic retinopathy. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of diabetic retinopathy is 19.7%, where 9.1% have non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), 10.6% have proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and 5.7% have macular oedema (ME). Duration of diabetes and age are the most significant risk factors for diabetic retinopathy with odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 8.88 (8.30-9.50) and 5.76 (5.10-6.55), respectively. Nephropathy, neuropathy, insulin use, poor glycemic control, hypertension and male gender significantly increased the risk for diabetic retinopathy. Smoking, hyperlipidemia and obesity significantly reduced the risk for diabetic retinopathy among type 2 Saudi diabetic cohort. CONCLUSION: vThe low prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in our registry may be a result of the shortage or absence of well-structured screening programmes. Therefore, many patients with NPDR might have been missed. A prevention programme is needed to reduce the effect of diabetic retinopathy risk factors in this society.
Al‐Rubeaan et al. (Wed,) studied this question.