Description
There are approximately ten million diabetic patients in the United States which represents about five percent of the population, and the number of diabetics is increasing by six percent each year. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in people aged 25 to 74 in the United States causing five thousand cases of new blindness each year. Causes of visual loss in diabetics include cataracts, glaucoma, optic neuropathy, vitritis, and retinopathy. Retinopathy is responsible in about 84 percent of blindness in diabetic patients. approximately two percent of all diabetics are blind from retinopathy, a prevalence of blindness which is ten times greater than the prevalence of blindness in the general population from any cause. This study was an attempt to discover simularities between diabetics in a prison setting and the general population. As a fourth year optometry student at Ferris State University, I spent three months at the State Prison of Southern Michigan. With help from my instructors, I gathered data on 43 diabetic patients. Factors such as the type of diabetes, onset of diabetes, age of patient, method of control and others were examined.
