“Assessment of Awareness of Diabetic Retinopathy among The Diabetics.”

Abstract

The main objective of our study is to find out the awareness and knowledge of diabetic retinopathy among diabetic patients at Father Muller medical college Hospital, Mangalore India. Diabetic retinopathy results from poor management of diabetes mellitus and lack of awareness and knowledge on the complications of diabetes mellitus. Patients were selected randomly and requested to fill the questionnaires and who were not in a position to fill due to visual disability or illiteracy, researcher filled the questionnaire for them. In our study we found that, in terms of knowledge and awareness, 37.4% had heard about the eye complications of diabetes and 62.6% never heard about it. Out of 37.4% only 24.9% know the relationship between diabetes and diabetic eye disease; 29.5 % have heard that vision can be affected due to high blood sugar levels. 32% of 200 participants go for regular eye checkups while 68% never go for checkups. The results of our study suggests that there is lack of general awareness of diabetic retinopathy amongst majority of diabetic patients and there is a need to increase the awareness and knowledge among the population.