Visual impairment and retinopathy in people with normal glucose tolerance, impaired glucose tolerance, and newly diagnosed NIDDM.

Abstract

Prevalence rates of visual impairment and retinopathy were compared in 1992 people with normal glucose tolerance, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), or newly diagnosed non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Glucose tolerance status was based on an oral glucose tolerance test after exclusion of those with a history of diabetes and/or diabetes medication use in an upper middle-class community of older white adults in southern California between 1984 and 1987. Although many sex-specific comparisons were made between glucose tolerance groups, only a few emerged as statistically significant. Among those, women with IGT had significantly higher age-adjusted rates of visual impairment (10.8%) than women with normal glucose tolerance (4.4%). Among men, those with IGT had significantly higher age-adjusted rates of visual impairment (7.9%) than men with newly diagnosed NIDDM (4.0%). Low frequencies of retinopathy were found in all three glucose tolerance groups.