Socioeconomic status and diabetic retinopathy in India

Socioeconomic status (SES) may influence the general health and the health-seeking behavior of an individual. Understanding the disease prevalence in different social strata may lead us to the important linkages that SES might have with diabetic retinopathy (DR). The knowledge on the prevalence of DR in the community based on their SES may help design strategies to provide affordable, last-mile care to the population most at risk of this blinding complication of diabetes mellitus. Our systematic search for population-based Indian studies found three studies in the past three decades that evaluated the effect of socioeconomic factors on the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy. The data on the prevalence in various socioeconomic strata was equivocal and the study settings were mostly urban. The parameters used to assess the SES differed among studies. This underscores the need for further research on SES-related diabetic retinopathy complications in India. Future studies should employ more robust socioeconomic scales to define the divide better.