A One Year Cross Sectional Study Of Prevalence Of Dry Eyes In Type 2 Diabetics

Abstract

Diabetes is often associated with several significant ocular conditions, such as retinopathy, refractive changes, cataract, nerve palsies, glaucoma and macular edema. However, recently problems involving ocular surface disorders, dryness in particular had been reported. This present study was an attempt to find out the prevalence of dry eyes in patients of type 2 diabetes and also to study the association of dry eyes with the duration of disease and with the stages of diabetic retinopathy. Methods The present one year cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 117 patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Department of Ophthalmology, KLES Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Belgaum during the period of January 2011 to December 2011. Results In the present study majority of the patients ( 76.07% ) were males with male to female ratio of 3.17:1. Most of the patients ( 31.62% ) were aged more than 60 years followed by 56 to 60 ( 19.66% ) . Overall, the mean age was 56.44 ± 9.10 years. More than half ( 56.41% ) patients had duration of diabetes upto five years. Overall, mean duration was 7.00 ± 6.77 years In the present study the Schirmer’s test, tear film break up time, Rose Bengal staining and conjunctival impression cytology was positive among 43.59%, 43.59%, 20.51% and 37.61% of patients respectively. III Conclusion and interpretation The results of the present study showed 44.44% prevalence of dry eye syndrome among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Dry eye syndrome in patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus was significantly associated with increasing age and longer duration whereas diabetic retinopathy and male and female ratio did not influence the prevalence of dry eye syndrome