Out of Sight - New Report into Eye Health of People With Diabetes

A new report into the eye health of people with diabetes has been released ahead of World Sight Day tomorrow (October 10), casts a dark shadow on the eye health of future generations of Australians with diabetes.

Almost all people with type 1 diabetes, which typically develops in childhood, and 60 per cent of those with type 2 diabetes, will develop some form of diabetic eye disease with many going on to experience vision loss or blindness within 20 years of their diabetes diagnosis.

The report, Out of Sight, was the result of a study by two of Australia’s most eminent research institutes - Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), and provides an overview of the impact of diabetic eye disease, specifically diabetic retinopathy on Australians. The report was sponsored by Novartis.

Diabetes, the nation’s fastest growing chronic disease, poses a 25 times greater risk of blindness for

the almost 1 million Australians diagnosed with the disease – and the 700,000 who presently have

undiagnosed diabetes – than for the general population.

“One of the serious complications of diabetes is its considerable impact on vision – an area of diabetes

management where timely diagnosis and treatment is not at its optimum. "With the number of

Australians affected by diabetes expected to double in the next decade, including the rise in type 2 diabetes in young people  and the prevalence of type 1 diabetes increasing by approximately three per cent every year, particularly in very young children, diabetic eye disease will continue to pose significant personal, public health and economic challenges,” said Associate Professor Jonathan Shaw, Head of Clinical Diabetes and Epidemiology, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.

Affecting an estimated 300,000 Australians, diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in Australians under 60, affecting them during the prime of their working lives.

“On World Sight Day, we are supporting the international call to action and encouraging all Australians

with diabetes to get their eyes tested,”  Mr Shaw concluded.

Tania Withers, 40 from Parkdale in Melbourne who commented for the report: “I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was 11 and struggled to manage my condition during my teenage years and into early adulthood. "At 23, my eyesight started deteriorating and I was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy. I felt so guilty because I had not attended regular eye examinations, despite being warned by doctors and diabetes educators. Unfortunately, by this stage my retinopathy was advanced and despite several rounds of laser and surgery, I was totally blind within three months.”