Prevalence of retinopathy and related factors in hospital diabetic patience patients in Bagiyatallah hospital in Tehran (1377-1381)

Background: Retinopathy is one of chronic complications of diabetes mellitus and is the most common cause of blindness in developed countries between ages 20-70 years old. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of retinopathy and related factors on Iranian population. Materials and methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study on a population of diabetic patients referred to Baqiyatallah hospital, admitted in internal medicine ward. Using sample size estimation equation for proportions 300 subjects was randomly selected and results analyzed with chi square and Fishers Exact test. Findings: Prevalence of retinopath was 5.6 percent mean age of subjects with retinopathy was 60.3 years old (SD=701) and mean duration of diabetes was 15 years (SD=7.1). Frequency of non prolifrative diabetic retinopathy was 52.8 and 47.2 percent respectively. Our study showed that there are significant relationship between retinopathy and subjects age, high levels of fasting blood sugar, history of hyperlipidemia, smoking and ischemic heart diseases (p<0.001). There are also significant relation ship between retinopathy and history of hypertension (p<0.05) in this study there was no relationship between retinopathy and sex, drugs used and history of stroke. Conclusions: Based on our findings we- suggest to consider retinal examination in diabetic patient and control glucose level in normal values. Regarding relationship between hyperlipidemia, smoking and hypertension with retinopathy we also suggest to control these factors in diabetic patients.