Diabetic eye complications in a medium sized municipality in southwest Norway

To find the prevalence of diabetes and diabetic eye complications, all inhabitants of the municipality of Eigersund were contacted. Those with known diabetes were encouraged to participate in our study. Among 12,447 people we found 223 diabetics (1.8%). Two hundred and ten of them (94.2%) participated in the study. Ophthalmological history was taken and careful ophthalmological examination carried out by one ophthalmologist. Twenty-nine patients (13.8%) had diabetic retinopathy -24 (11.4%) nonproliferative and 5 (2.4%) proliferative retinopathy. Retinopathy was found in 11 (34.4%) of 32 type I diabetics and in 18 (10.1%) of 178 type II diabetics. Forty-three patients (20.5%) had significant cataract, and 15 patients (7.3%) had one or both eyes operated for cataract. Forty-two patients (20.0%) had their therapy adjusted as a result of our investigation. The prevalence of retinopathy was lower than expected, especially among the type II diabetics. The ophthalmological care of diabetics can, however, still be much improved.