Prevalence, Incidence and Ecological Determinants of Diabetic Retinopathy in Iran: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

To estimate the pooled prevalence and incidence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Iran and to investigate their correlations with the Human Development Index (HDI), healthcare access (i.e., density of specialists and sub-specialists), and methodological issues.

Electronic databases such as PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and local databases were searched for cohort and cross-sectional studies published prior to January 2018. Prevalence and incidence rates of DR were extracted from January 2000 to December 2017 and random effects models were used to estimate pooled effect sizes. The Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tool was applied for quality assessment of eligible studies.

A total of 55,445 participants across 33 studies were included. The pooled prevalence (95% CI) of DR in diabetic clinics (22 studies), eye clinics (4 studies), and general population (7 studies) was 31.8% (24.5 to 39.2), 57.8% (50.2 to 65.3), and 29.6% (22.6 to 36.5), respectively. It was 7.4% (3.9 to 10.8) for proliferative DR and 7.1% (4.9 to 9.4) for clinically significant macular edema. The heterogeneity of individual estimates of prevalence was highly significant. HDI ( $$ < 0.001), density of specialists ( $$ = 0.004), subspecialists ( $$ < 0.001), and sampling site ( $$ = 0.041) were associated with heterogeneity after the adjustment for type of DR, duration of diabetes, study year, and proportion of diabetics with controlled HbA1C.

Human development and healthcare access were correlated with the prevalence of DR. Data were scarce on the prevalence of DR in less developed provinces. Participant recruitment in eye clinics might overestimate the prevalence of DR.