Prevalence of Diabetic Retinopathy in Oman: A Two Decade National Study

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the major chronic diseases with a world prevalence of 8.5%. Oman has shown a consistent rise in the prevalence of DM, reaching 14.5% in 2017. A major complication of DM is diabetic retinopathy (DR). There is limited information available about the prevalence of DR and its subtypes in Oman. This is the largest national study conducted to determine the prevalence of DR and its subtypes in Oman.

We extracted the records of 2000 Omani patients with DM and retrospectively screened for DR, non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) reported between 2000 and 2017. The sample included patients from 79 medical centers from all governorates of Oman. A total of 616 patients were included in the study. We investigated the prevalence of DR among both genders and different age groups. We studied the association between the progression of DM into DR.

The prevalence of DR, NPDR, and PDR within patients diagnosed with DM was 19.2% (95% confidence interval (CI): 16.2-22.5), 8.6% (95% CI: 6.6-11.1), and 1.3% (95% CI: 0.7-2.5), respectively. Moreover, females have shown a higher prevalence of any DR, compromising 60.2% of all patients diagnosed with DR, 62.3% of all NPDR patients, and 75.0% of all PDR patients. However, there was no significant association between sex and DR (p = 0.840). There was a significant association between having DM for 10 years and DR (p = 0.010).

The prevalence of DR increased from 14.3% in 2003 to 19.3% in 2017. Effective health policies and screening programs should be employed to control the increased prevalence of DM and DR.