Abstract

CRESPO VALDES, Nelson et al. Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in patients at the primary health care. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2004, vol.20, n.2, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3038.

Five hundred fifty nine diabetic patients from the primary health care areas of "Federico Capdevila" and René Bedia" polyclinics in Boyeros municipality, of "Luis Pasteur" and "Turcios Lima" polyclinics in 10 de Octubre municipality and "Bernardo Posse" in San Miguel del Padrón municipality was prospectively studied using the same study protocol for all the cases. The objective of the study carried out from 1986 to 2000 was to determine the clinical characteristics of diabetes mellitus. Diabetic retinopathy was found in 20,5 % of cases, 90 patients(16,1 %) showed non-proliferative retinopathy whereas 25 (4.4 %) had proliferative type. It was proved that clinical duration of diabetes was related to the presence of retinopathy since 23 patients in the 15 years-old and over group showed retinopathy prevalence of 44,2 %. Sixty diabetic patients were analyzed to relate the presence of microalbuminuria and retinopathy, 20 were positive and 80 % of them had some degree of retinopathy. This paper reflects how the degree of diabetic control influences the effects since 31 patients with poor diabetic control had retinopathy (30,6 %) whereas only 10 patients with good diabetic control presented with retinopathy (18,8 %). Three percent of patients were legally blind.

Keywords : Diabetic retinopathy; epidemiology; primary health care; diabetes mellitus; complications; community medicine.