Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in Pakistan; A systematic review

Primary aim was to review the literature on the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and Vision threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR) in Pakistan.

A search of the bibliographic databases (Medline, Pub med, and Google scholar) was conducted from 1990 to March 2017. Articles about prevalence of DR and VTDR in Pakistan were retrieved and scrutinized. The studies satisfying the inclusion/exclusion criteria were considered for detail review.

Forty one articles on prevalence of DR were traced out. Exclusion and inclusion criteria were met in 29 studies. In selected studies (29), pooled Prevalence of DR was found to be 28.78% with a variation of 10.6% to 91.3%. Out of 29 studies, DR was classified in 19 studies. Pooled Prevalence of VTDR in these 19 studies was found to be 28.2% (variation of 4% to 46.3%) of patient with retinopathy and 8.6% of all diabetics.

A great variation in the values of DR and VTDR was observed in this study. Researchers suggest a community based study with uniform methodology to find out a comparable value of prevalence of DR and VTDR in all provinces of Pakistan.