 |
|
How Often Should Patients With Diabetes Be Screened for Retinopathy?
|
|
| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
|
|
|
To the Editor: The study by Dr Vijan and colleagues,1 which questions the utility of yearly screening for diabetic retinopathy, is massively flawed. The authors ignore the key point that treating diabetic eye disease produces cost savings to society.2 This finding has now been replicated in Australia, the United Kingdom, the Scandinavian countries, and elsewhere and has driven public initiatives to prevent needless blindness in persons with diabetes mellitus.
The authors cite but misrepresent my findings that "Changing the frequency of screening for patients with no or mild background retinopathy from 1 to 2 years has no detrimental effect on years of sight saved, while reducing screening costs somewhat."2 The important point is that any delay beyond the 2-year mark rapidly increases the number of cases of needless blindness. Many patients fail to comply with recommendations for yearly screening, and a 2-year target would worsen this.
The method used by . . . [Full Text of this Article]
 CiteULike  Connotea  Del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Technorati  Twitter
What's this?
RELATED ARTICLE
Cost-Utility Analysis of Screening Intervals for Diabetic Retinopathy in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Sandeep Vijan, Timothy P. Hofer, and Rodney A. Hayward
JAMA. 2000;283(7):889-896.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
|
Preventing Visual Loss From Chronic Eye Disease in Primary Care: Scientific Review
Rowe et al.
JAMA 2004;291:1487-1495.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
Diabetic Retinopathy: Contemporary prevalence in a well-controlled population
Brown et al.
Diabetes Care 2003;26:2637-2642.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
Valuing Health-Related Quality of Life in Diabetes
Coffey et al.
Diabetes Care 2002;25:2238-2243.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
|
