Prevalence of retinopathy in a Sri Lankan diabetes clinic.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy among patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM) attending a Sri Lankan diabetes clinic and assess the skills of non-ophthalmologist in screening for retinal disease.

Research Design And Method: One thousand and three consecutive diabetic patients were screened for diabetic eye disease using a standardised technique based on the WHO Multinational Study.

Results: 31.

The prevalence of macrovascular disease and lipid abnormalities amongst diabetic patients in Sri Lanka.

The prevalence of macrovascular disease and hyperlipidaemia was examined in 500 patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus attending a diabetic clinic in a Sri Lankan teaching hospital and 250 controls matched for age and gender. Macrovascular disease was assessed using a modified World Health Organisation questionnaire and modified Minnesota coding of electrocardiogram recordings. Twenty-one per cent of diabetic patients and 14.

Knowledge about diabetes and metabolic control in diabetic patients.

It is widely accepted that patient education is an essential adjunct to the care of diabetic patients. A randomised controlled clinical trial in patient education was conducted at a diabetic and general medical clinic in Sri Jayawardenepura General Hospital. Two groups of diabetic patients matched for age, gender and duration of diabetes were allocated randomly to conventional care at general medical clinics or to a diabetes clinic where specific educational objectives were defined and patients trained to achieve these objectives.

Diabetes in the elderly in a developing country.

In developing countries diabetes in the elderly is thought to be uncommon and is consequently ignored by health planners. We assessed the prevalence of complications of diabetes mellitus and frequency of hospital admissions in patients aged 60 and over in a hospital diabetic clinic in Sri Lanka. Elderly diabetic patients, though comprising only 23% of clinic patients, accounted for 46% of admissions.