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Risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy at first screening in persons with type 1 diabetes diagnosed under 18 years of age

Eye volume 35, pages 2840–2847 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To determine the risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy (DR) in children and young people (CYP) with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) at first screening.

Methods

Records from the Diabetes Eye Screening Wales (DESW) service for people in Wales, UK, with T1DM diagnosed under age 18 years were combined with other electronic health record (EHR) data in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Data close to the screening date were collected, and risk factors derived from multivariate, multinomial logistic regression modelling.

Results

Data from 4172 persons, with median (lower quartile, upper quartile) age 16.3 (13.0, 22.3) years and duration of diabetes 6.6 (2.3, 12.3) years were analysed. 62.6% (n = 2613) had no DR, 26.7% (n = 1112) background DR, and 10.7% (n = 447) had referable DR (RDR). No RDR was observed under 19 years of age. Factors associated with an increased risk of DR were diabetes duration, elevated HbA1c, and diastolic blood pressure. People diagnosed with T1DM at 12 years or older had an additional risk for each year they had diabetes compared to those diagnosed before age 12 controlling for the diabetes duration (odds ratios 1.23 and 1.34, respectively).

Conclusions

This study found that 37.4% of the study cohort had DR at first screening, the risk being greater the longer the duration of diabetes or higher the HbA1c and diastolic blood pressure. In addition, people diagnosed at 12 years of age or over were more likely to have DR with each additional year with diabetes.

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Fig. 1: The proportion of CYP with T1DM that have DR at first screening.
Fig. 2: How proportion of people with DR at first screening varies by demographic factors.

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Acknowledgements

AA acknowledges financial support from Health Data Research UK (NIWA1), which is funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute for Health Research (England), Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), British Heart Foundation and Wellcome.

This study makes use of anonymised data held in the SAIL Databank, which is part of the national e-health records research infrastructure for Wales. We would like to acknowledge all the data providers who make anonymised data available for research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Diabetes Research Unit Cymru, Swansea University Medical School, Singleton Park, Swansea, UK

    James Rafferty, David R. Owens, Stephen D. Luzio & Rebecca L. Thomas

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK

    Patrick Watts

  3. Health Data Research UK, Swansea University Medical School, Singleton Park, Swansea, UK

    Ashley Akbari

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  1. James Rafferty
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Correspondence to James Rafferty.

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Rafferty, J., Owens, D.R., Luzio, S.D. et al. Risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy at first screening in persons with type 1 diabetes diagnosed under 18 years of age. Eye 35, 2840–2847 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8

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