Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The British Journal of Ophthalmology logoLink to The British Journal of Ophthalmology
. 2001 Mar;85(3):354–356. doi: 10.1136/bjo.85.3.354

Incidence of blindness due to diabetic eye disease in Fife 1990-9

T Cormack, B Grant, M Macdonald, J Steel, I Campbell
PMCID: PMC1723871  PMID: 11222346

Abstract

AIMS—In the light of goals for reducing blindness due to diabetes, published in the St Vincent Declaration, 1989, the aim of this study was to find the incidence and prevalence of blindness in the diabetic population of Fife.
METHODS—All blind registrations for the period 1990-9 were studied. Those with diabetes as the first or main diagnosis were included as new diabetic blind. The prevalence of diabetes was studied in a large sample population and extrapolated to the estimated population of Fife.
RESULTS—The incidence of blindness due to diabetes was 64 (SD 24, 95% CI 49-79) per 100 000 diabetic population/year. The point prevalence of blindness due to diabetes on 31 December 1999 was 210 per 100 000 diabetic population.
CONCLUSION—The incidence of blindness due to diabetes, in a diabetic population, is now known. Without this benchmark it is impossible to assess the implementation of the St Vincent Declaration.



Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (75.8 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Agardh E., Agardh C. D., Hansson-Lundblad C. The five-year incidence of blindness after introducing a screening programme for early detection of treatable diabetic retinopathy. Diabet Med. 1993 Jul;10(6):555–559. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-5491.1993.tb00120.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Berger B., Stenström G., Chang Y. F., Sundkvist G. The prevalence of diabetes in a Swedish population of 280,411 inhabitants. A report from the Skaraborg Diabetes Registry. Diabetes Care. 1998 Apr;21(4):546–548. doi: 10.2337/diacare.21.4.546. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Ghafour I. M., Allan D., Foulds W. S. Common causes of blindness and visual handicap in the west of Scotland. Br J Ophthalmol. 1983 Apr;67(4):209–213. doi: 10.1136/bjo.67.4.209. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Grey R. H., Burns-Cox C. J., Hughes A. Blind and partial sight registration in Avon. Br J Ophthalmol. 1989 Feb;73(2):88–94. doi: 10.1136/bjo.73.2.88. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Lundman B., Engström L. Diabetes and it's complications in a Swedish county. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 1998 Feb;39(2):157–164. doi: 10.1016/s0168-8227(97)00128-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Moss S. E., Klein R., Klein B. E. Ten-year incidence of visual loss in a diabetic population. Ophthalmology. 1994 Jun;101(6):1061–1070. doi: 10.1016/s0161-6420(94)31217-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Nabarro J. D. Diabetes in the United Kingdom: some facts and figures. Diabet Med. 1988 Dec;5(9):816–822. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-5491.1988.tb01117.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Olk R. J. Modified grid argon (blue-green) laser photocoagulation for diffuse diabetic macular edema. Ophthalmology. 1986 Jul;93(7):938–950. doi: 10.1016/s0161-6420(86)33638-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Trautner C., Icks A., Haastert B., Plum F., Berger M. Incidence of blindness in relation to diabetes. A population-based study. Diabetes Care. 1997 Jul;20(7):1147–1153. doi: 10.2337/diacare.20.7.1147. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The British Journal of Ophthalmology are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES