Background: India is currently being considered the diabetic capital of the world. With the huge burden of diabetes, more emphasis has to be laid about the disease and its complications. Diabetic retinopathy, one of the major complications of diabetes mellitus, is the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment. With the help of eye screening and timely treatment, the damage caused due to diabetes mellitus can be delayed.
Objectives: The objective of this study is to know the awareness of diabetic retinopathy and barriers for eye screening among adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Materials and Methods: Facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in tertiary care hospital of Davanagere district, Karnataka, during September 1–October 31, 2017. A total of 150 patients with a history of type 2 diabetes mellitus were interviewed using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Data were entered in Epidata 3.1 software, and statistical analysis was done by SPSS software version 16. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were applied.
Results: In this study, 88 (58.7%) patients were aware that diabetes can affect the eye. About 105 (70%) patients felt that with controlled diabetes, they need not undergo eye screening and felt that they need to go for eye checkup only when vision is affected. Majority of 135 (90%) patients were not aware of treatment options for diabetic retinopathy. The most common source about diabetic complication was from health-care providers, and lack of knowledge 141 (93.3%) about the importance of eye screening was the major barrier for eye screening.
Conclusion: Even though more than half of the patients were aware about diabetes affecting eye, lesser patients were aware about treatment and eye screening. This emphasizes the need for increasing awareness about disease, its complications, and treatment options. Patients should be also motivated for eye screening.
Key words: Awareness; Diabetes Mellitus; Diabetic Retinopathy
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