Myopia and diabetes mellitus with special reference to adult-onset myopia

A significant preponderance of myopia has been reported in adult Danish diabetics as compared to non-diabetics. This suggestion of a special type of diabetic myopia is evaluated in the present study. Comparing myopia pattern (degree and age at onset) in diabetics and non-diabetics, 80 of each, the assessment is based mainly on personal information about refractive history, gained through interviews of patients referred from other departments for routine eye examination. With a concise memory as inclusion criterion, the resulting sample is hardly representative, and the significant findings are to be considered tendencies only. In the whole sample there were more cases of late myopia onset and progression than expected from textbooks; 31% were of adult onset, i.e. after the age of 20 year. Most late-onset cases were of a low order, a type more prevalent in diabetics (40%) than in the non-diabetic controls (22.5%). Otherwise there was no indication of a special type of diabetic myopia.