Abstract
BackgroundDiabetic retinopathy is one of the micro vascular complications of diabetes mellitus. To date there are no studies that show the magnitude of diabetic retinopathy in the pediatric population of Ethiopia with only very few in Africa. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in children and adolescents at a tertiary center in Ethiopia.MethodsThis cross-sectional hospital based descriptive study included children aged between 9 and 17 years attending the endocrine follow-up clinic of Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital. A structured questionnaire was used for evaluating sociodemographic data and information pertinent to diabetes. The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy was determined by fundus photography of each eye.ResultsA total of 86 patients were examined with a mean age of 13.7 (SD = 1.8) years. At onset of diabetes, 95.6 % of children presented with diabetic ketoacidosis(DKA); 22 children (25.6 %) had at least two episodes of DKA, and 45 children (52.3 %) had poor glycemic control. Background retinopathy was present in four children (4.7 %) with a mean age of 14.25 (SD = 1.89) years and two of them also had maculopathy.ConclusionAlthough there are some methodological limitations, this study highlights the difficulties of achieving good glycemic control and the early occurrence of diabetic retinopathy in Ethiopian diabetic children.
Highlights
Diabetic retinopathy is one of the micro vascular complications of diabetes mellitus that results from damage to retinal capillaries and venules
Design and setting The cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at Addis Ababa University, Collage of Health Sciencesand Pediatrics Endocrine Clinic in collaboration with the diabetic retinopathy screening program in the adult diabetes clinic of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital that is found in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.The pediatrics endocrine clinic is functional once weekly to evaluate patients on management and follow up
Among a total of 212 children who had follow up at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, 90 (45 %) of them full filled the criteria based on the recommendations of International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) and four of the selected didn’t appear for screening
Summary
Diabetic retinopathy is one of the micro vascular complications of diabetes mellitus. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in children and adolescents at a tertiary center in Ethiopia. Diabetic retinopathy is one of the micro vascular complications of diabetes mellitus that results from damage to retinal capillaries and venules. It is the most common micro vascular disease seen in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes and the most common cause of acquired blindness in young adults in United States [1, 2]. A few studies have reported mild diabetic retinopathy in children with duration of disease as short
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