Risk factors for diabetic retinopathy in young and middle-aged patients: a retrospective study.

Aims/introduction: To investigate the related risk factors of retinopathy in young and middle-aged diabetic patients in order to improve the prognosis of patients.

Materials and methods: Using clinical practice data from a cohort study at our two research centers, we developed a bivariate logistic regression model to investigate the frightening risk factors potentially for retinopathy in young and middle-aged patients with diabetes, including diabetes type, physical activity level, treatment-related characteristics and laboratory tests.

Results: A total of 453 patients with diabetes were investigated, 197 (43.5%) developed retinopathy. The risk of retinopathy was closely related to place of residence (OR: 0.275, 95% CI: 0.093-0.814), education level (OR: 0.522, 95% CI: 0.363-0.749), medical payment method (OR: 2.152, 95% CI: 1.308-3.539), BMI (OR: 1.187, 95% CI: 1.091-1.291), disease course (OR: 1.072, 95% CI: 1.028-1.118), hyperlipidemia (OR: 2.547, 95% CI: 1.260-5.150), physical activity level (OR: 0.312, 95% CI: 0.220-0.443), and dietary compliance (OR 0.871, 95% CI: 0.806-0.940). The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve was 0.915. Goodness of fit (Hosmer-Lemeshow) was 0.658.

Conclusions: The risk of young and middle-aged patients with increased as a result of certain patient characteristics and complications, especially lower dietary compliance and physical activity level.