Awareness Assessment of Diabetic Eye Health in a Tertiary Hospital in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Maaly AM Abdel Fattah, Omar Daeef, and Lujain AlKhalifa

Background: Saudi Arabia is considered as the seventh highest rate in the world in terms of diabetes incidence, with about 3.4 million people having been diagnosed with diabetes in 2015. The recent estimate of the disease showed that 24.4% of the adult population is suffering from Diabetes Mellitus (DM).

Objective of the Study: Due to this high prevalence of diabetes and its complications in Saudi Arabia, there was a need to perform studies especially in large hospitals of central region to estimate the awareness of consequences due to diabetes mellitus among the population in addition to provide the participants extra knowledge for its ocular and non-ocular complications.

Materials and Methods: This is a prospective, descriptive, and observational study conducted among Saudi population aged ≥12 years of age who attended endocrine and family medicine clinics in King Faisal Specialist Hospital and research centre (KFSH&RC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 559 printed questionnaire forms were distributed for all diabetic and non-diabetic patients attending both clinics in the month of October 2016. The patients who completed the data and signed the approval consent of participation were included in the study. 317 participants were distributed into 2 groups (group 1: 175 diabetic patients and group 2 (control group): 142 non- diabetic one.

The questionnaire form comprised the following data: File number, age, sex, the presence of diabetes or any other associated systemic diseases and its duration, Address, level of education, approximate distance (km) from home to nearby eye clinic. Level of awareness of DM and its complications was graded from 1(unaware) to 3 (fully aware) according to number of hospital visits per year, regular follow up or visiting the hospital upon ocular complaint, any previous ocular interventions, or non-elective admissions to hospital.

Results: Age of the patients ranged from 13- 88 years (mean:55.33 years) with an average duration of diabetes 8±2.86 years. 140 patients (44.16%) were from rural areas, 159 patients (50,15%) were males, 124 patients (39.11%) finished at least intermediate or secondary education, 193 (60.88%) were graduates or above. Level of awareness of DM and its ocular complications (level 2-3) was detected in 264 patients (83.28%). 143 diabetic patients (81.71%) valued the importance of at least one ocular examination per year. Only 32 patients of the diabetic group (18.28%) had never underwent ocular check up in the last 12 months.

Conclusion: In our study, although 44.16% of the patients were from rural areas and 39.11% were school educated, 83.28% of the participants were aware that diabetes can affect the eyes indicating that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had achieved a notable economic growth and improvement in life quality. The study revealed high level of awareness about importance of monitoring DM among studied population, with no significant difference between graduate or school educated persons.

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