
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 14, 1993                   TAG: 9310140098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Short

MANY DIABETICS TAKING SERIOUS EYESIGHT RISK

About half the adult diabetics in the United States are not getting yearly eye exams that could help save them from a leading cause of blindness, researchers say.

Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness among people 25 to 74 years old, robbing 15,000 to 39,000 people a year of their sight, the American Diabetes Association says.

In insulin-dependent diabetes, the more severe type, eye damage begins soon after diagnosis and develops in almost 100 percent of patients within 15 years.

In non-insulin-dependent diabetes, the more common type, about one-fifth of patients have eye damage by the time they are diagnosed. Two-thirds have eye damage after 20 years.

Yet overall, only 49 percent of 2,405 diabetics surveyed had received dilated-eye exams in the year before they were questioned, the new study found.

- Associated Press

by CNB