Journal
JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
Volume 101, Issue 5, Pages 430-437Publisher
NATL MED ASSOC
DOI: 10.1016/S0027-9684(15)30929-9
Keywords
diabetes mellitus; ophthalmic; race/ethnicity
Categories
Funding
- Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) [D55-HP-00069]
- Division of General Internal Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
- National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities' Loan Repayment Program
- Northwestern University Feinberg,School of Medicine's 2007 Medical Student Summer Medical Research Program
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Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in the United States. This sight-threatening complication of diabetes mellitus disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minority populations. Tight glycemic control and routine eye screening can diminish the public health impact of this devastating condition in minority communities. However, racial and ethnic minority patients are more likely to have poorer glycemic control and are less likely to be screened for diabetic retinopathy than their white counterparts. Patient, provider, and health care system factors play a role in these disparities. While public health interventions are necessary on a large scale to preserve vision in minority communities, it is also essential that individual health care providers better understand the impact of diabetic retinopathy on minority communities and the available interventions to reduce its impact. Maximizing their efforts to improve diabetes-related vision care for their racial and ethnic minority patients can lead to a decrease in diabetic retinopathy disparties.
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