Prevalence of Vision Impairment among Diabetic Patients in West Bank, Palestine
Optometry Department, Faculty of Medicine and Heath Science, An-Najah National University,
Nablus Palestine (A Qaddumi MSc)
Correspondence to: Asmaa Qaddumi, Optometry Department, Faculty of Medicine and Heath
Science, An-Najah National University, Nablus,West Bank, occupied Palestinian Territory
[email protected]

Abstract
Background: Diabetes mellitus is a common disease Worldwide, with visual impairment being
the worst complication. As visual impairment has a great impact on the patient quality of life and
constitute a large social and economic cost to the country, The current study was carried out to
determine the prevalence of vision impairment, risk factors, and causes among diabetic patients
in West Bank, Palestine in 2017. This study is the first and largest to be done on visual
impairment among diabetic patients in West Bank, Palestine.
Methods: A cross sectional study of 385 diabetic patients were collected by convenience
sampling from 11 different Primary Health Care centers from all West Bank directorates. The
number of patients from each Primary Health Care center was proportionally related to the
percentage of diabetes mellitus in each directorate. All patients were older than 18 years of age
with either type I or II diabetes mellitus. Patients responded to a questionnaire interview which
included sociodemographic and medical characteristics, and were subjected to ophthalmic
examination including visual acuity, visual field, slit lamp, tonometry, and dilated fundoscopy.
Results: Of all patients examined, 52.7% were female and 47.3% were male. The mean age and
duration of diabetes were 56.5 and 9.7 years. Of all patients, 92.5% had type 2 while 7.5% had
type 1 diabetes mellitus. Less than half 46.2% were on oral hypoglycemic agents, 25.5% on
insulin, and 17.4% on both types of treatment, whereas only 3.1% were on diet alone. 31.9% had
controlled HbA1c level. The prevalence of blindness among participants was found to be 1%,
while 16.9% were visually impaired. Causes of visual impairment were cataract 8.3%, diabetic
retinopathy 7.8%, and glaucoma 0.3%. Using Chi-square statistics to assess associations, visual
impairment was significantly associated with age, and educational level. While visual field was
significantly associated with sex, educational level, and hypertension.

Conclusion: The study revealed that visual impairment is highly prevalent in Palestine compared
with other countries. It is associated with age, and caused mostly by cataract. Screening
programs should be added in order to decrease the risk of visual impairment and blindness.
Keywords: Diabetes, Diabetic Retinopathy, Vision impairment, Blindness, Low vision,
Palestine.

Conference Title

The 5th annual JOPAL conference

Conference Country

Palestine

Conference Date

March 7, 2019 - March 8, 2019

Conference Sponsor

نقابتي اختصاصيي البصريات في الاردن وفلسطين