Outcomes of diabetic retinopathy screening in the elderly population
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Incidence and progression of diabetic retinopathy in the Norfolk screening programme from 2006 to 2017: cohort study
IRAS ID
247351
Contact name
Colin Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The investigators believe it would be valuable to update the rates of retinopathy incidence and progression in light of the known improvements in the management of diabetes and hypertension, early diagnosis and treatment. It may also be possible to identify other low-risk individuals in whom annual screening could be avoided altogether. One possible subgroup are individuals whose diabetes is diagnosed at advanced age (such as over 80) in which other co-morbidities exist making screening difficult to undertake and resulting in inconclusive digital imaging results. Under these circumstances it is required that patients are sent to a Hospital Eye service (HES) appointment thus adding to the inconvenience to the patient. In addition, this elderly population are more likely to die before they develop any sight-threatening retinopathy. Although several studies have shown that age is a risk factor for retinopathy, none have investigated the effects of age on retinopathy incidence while explicitly accounting for death as a competing risk. Evidence is also needed on progression of retinopathy after referral from screening programmes to specialist Eye Departments. We propose to provide this evidence by linkage and analysis of data from the Norfolk Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme with treatment data from the NNUH, for the period December 2006 and March 2017.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EE/0084
Date of REC Opinion
2 Jul 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion