Retinopathy of Non-Communicable disease origin: Bringing the screening services close to the community

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and Hypertension (HTN) are associated with micro-vascular complications like neuropathy, nephropathy and retinopathy affecting the quality of life of the affected individuals. Retinopathy due to DM & HTN is an important complication associated with various degree of ocular morbidities including total loss of vision. Screening for retinopathy, a preventable complication leading to blindness due to DM and HTN, is not done or often ignored especially due to lack of logistic for screening or lack of skilled manpower to do this job. In a resource poor setting like India, it is also not feasible to have an ophthalmologist at the PHC level for screening of retinopathy. A trained medical officer can screen retinopathy using direct ophthalmoscope which is simple and easy to operate device. Screening services at PHC level will improve the patient compliance for regular follow up for retinopathy, in addition of reducing the burden on tertiary care hospital.