Half of blind people for diabetes had never gone to the ophthalmologist, despite the fact that diabetic retinopathy - one of the most common complications of this chronic disease - is the first cause of legal blindness (vision below visual acuity)In Spain.
This was highlighted on the occasion of the celebration on November 14 of World Diabetes Day, which this year is dedicated to raise awareness about the importance of visual health, under the slogan ‘Eye with diabetes’.
More than 5 million people suffer from this disease in Spain, of which 1,600,000 present vision problems, said Elena Andradas, general director of Public Health, Quality and Innovation, who has admitted that, taking into account these data, there are"A margin of improvement" in the approach of pathology.
The representative of the Ministry of Health has explained that 11 % of the health expenditure of the National Health System (SNS) is attributed to diabetes and their complications and stressed that it is a disease whose incidence is increasing, in such a way thatIt is expected that in 2030 one in ten people will suffer.
For his part, Dr. José María Ruiz, president of the Spanish Retina and Vitreous Society, has indicated that the third part of the diabetics will present retinopathy and, from them, a third will have a serious affectation of their vision.
Therefore, the recommendation is that in patients with type 2 diabetes the bottom of the eye is studied from the moment of diagnosis, while in type 1 "it is necessary to pass between 1 and 5 years for complications to appear."
How can retinopathy be controlled?According to this ophthalmologist, it is necessary to "adequate" training of primary care doctors "so that they are encouraged to see the bottom of the eye" of patients with diabetes, although he has recognized that "it is often difficult due to the care pressure" thatThey support.
Dr. Ruiz has explained that Telemedicine is currently being started: a photograph of the bottom of the eye is carried out through systems that do not require in some cases the pupila dilation.
This -ha added- allows to detect early the appearance of visual complications and facilitates being able to send the patient to the hospital before more serious problems appear.
The president of the Spanish Diabetes Federation (Fed), Andoni Lorenzo, has highlighted that 26 % of patients with type 1 diabetes and 36 % of type 2 have never undergone a background exploration of the background ofEye, so it has requested a greater implication of scientific societies and the administration itself.
He has said he was surprised with the fact that 50% of blind people had never gone to the ophthalmologist and has considered that it is not due to a single cause, but is a "structural problem" derived from the lack of awarenessand sensitization about a disease that "the best and worst thing is that it does not hurt."
In that sense, Dr. Ruiz has argued that there are many diabetics that do not assume their illness, so that patients arrive at ophthalmologists with a state of retinopathy so advanced "that we cannot do anything anymore."
The general director recalled that in 2007 the Ministry approved the SNS diabetes strategy (updated in 2012), which is in the implementation phase of all autonomous communities, and "a good part" of its objectives are aimed at reducing complicationsof this disease.
According to Andradas, in recent years there has been "an important" impulse in some communities to facilitate access to the early diagnosis of visual problems of patients with diabetes in primary care and also through telemedicine, although it has not mentioned which onesare.
The president of Fede has described the strategic plan as "frankly good", although he has criticized that "many" of the measures approved by the central government "then depend on the will of the community or the counselor on duty so that they are implemented or not».
"We have seventeen strategies in Spain and this is not possible," he said.
