Assessment of Diabetic Patients' Adherence to Diabetic Retinopathy Screening and the Influencing Factors in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

BackgroundDiabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the diabetic complications that leads to the loss of vision. Most diabetic patients will have DR that is varying in its severity under the effect of many factors such as type of diabetes, duration of diabetes, and poor glycemic control. This study aimed to assess the level of adherence of diabetic patients to diabetic retinopathy screening (DRS) and to identify the influencing factors of adherence among diabetic patients in Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted via a self-administered questionnaire among diabetic patients who were attending the primary health-care centers in Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia, from July to August 2021. This questionnaire included five sections: sociodemographic data, diabetic profile, assessment of the knowledge, attitude toward DRS, and barriers to DRS. ResultsA total of 397 diabetic patients were involved in the study. Diabetic ocular complications were reported among 35.3% of the patients. The most commonly reported diabetic eye complication was cataract (37.1%; 52) followed by retinopathy (36.4%). Among the participants, 32.2% had a good awareness level regarding DR. In addition, 46.9% of diabetic patients have DRS. The most reported barriers were having no visual or eye problems, difficulty getting an appointment, and the cost and lack of information about the screening procedure (50.9%, 50.1%, 42.1%, and 39.8%, respectively). ConclusionImprovement of patients' knowledge is a significant step to enhancing adherence to DRS. The availability of screening programs and well-established ophthalmology clinics in primary healthcare centers in addition to trained physicians will help to overcome the barriers of DRS.

Assessment of ocular services status for diabetic patients in Saudi Arabia

“…Data analysis was carried out using SPPS version 24.0, Data contains 63 respondents from a questionnaire administered online to evaluate eye care services for diabetic patients in Saudi Arabia, there was a total of 25 variables with no case of missing observations from all the respondents RESULTS TABLE 1: Does the diabetic patient need special care and the number of diabetics who come to the clinic per month? The summary table [1] above shows descriptive statistics for categorical variables number of diabetic patients that goes to the clinic in a month with whether those patient need special care or sometimes, from total diabetic patients in a month 29 out of 63 always need special care, that corresponds to 46% of a total sample taken, while 54% sometimes need special care Gender was also an essential variable of assessment in this study. The question of interest was whether the patients were worried about the complications of diabetes mellitus in the presence of reasonable glycemic control.…”

“…Studies indicate that diabetes is associated with some significant complications namely stroke, kidney injuries, cardiac conditions, vision loss, and limb amputations due to severe diabetic wounds. [1] A closer look at the global diabetic prevalence shows that Saudi Arabia is ranked seventh in terms of the prevalence of diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes in Saudi Arabia is 23.9% of the population.…”

“…In addition, the PDR pathological feature is pre-retinal Neovascularization. [1] Both PDR and NPDR are associated with macular edema and it is the most common cause of loss of vision in diagnosed DR patients. [2] Most individuals with diabetes are complicates to some degree of DR and its incidence doubles with the duration of diabetes.…”

More or More of the Same: Ownership Concentration and Media Diversity in Egypt

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