Diabetic retinopathy tied to increased risk of death; claims study

The design was a population-based cohort study. In 2006-2007, 6,830 subjects aged ≥30 years were recruited from 13 villages in northern China through clustered randomization. In 2012-2013, a six-year follow-up was further done. Six different proportional hazards models, with different confounders adjusted, were used to explore the association between baseline DR and risk of death.

On data analysis, the following facts emerged.

• 5,570 subjects were included in this study by our inclusion and exclusion criteria.
• 410 (7.36%) subjects died by follow-up. The median ages of the dead subjects and survived subjects were 67 (interquartile range, IQR: 58-72) years and 52 (IQR: 42-58) years (Z=21.979, p<0.001).
• Male accounted for 62.20% and 44.92% among the dead and survived subjects (p<0.001). Besides, compared with those survived, the dead were found to be with lower education (p<0.001), lower marriage rate (p<0.001), lower income (p<0.001), higher proportion of smoking (p=0.003), higher systolic blood pressure (Z=10.411, p<0.001), lower body mass index (Z=-3.302, p=0.001), larger spherical equivalent error (Z=4.248, p<0.001), lower intraocular pressure (Z=-4.912, p<0.001), smaller anterior chamber depth (Z=-9.186, p<0.001), larger length thickness (Z=11.069, p<0.001), higher fast blood glucose level (Z=5.650, p<0.001), higher total cholesterols (Z=2.015, p=0.044), higher low-density lipoprotein (Z=2.024, p=0.043), higher proportion of drug usage (p<0.001).
• Besides, the dead subjects were more likely to be with VI, glaucoma, cataract, age-related macular degeneration, diabetes and DR. 148 subjects were diagnosed with DR at baseline, 33 (22.30%) of them were dead before follow-up.

For the full article ,follow the link: https://doi.org/10.1159/000512667

Primary source: Ophthalmic Research