Social determinants of health associated with diabetic eye-care quality

Medical Xpress September 16, 2024
Melissa Rohman, Northwestern University

Patients who live in rural communities, Hispanic patients and Black patients with pre-existing diabetic retinopathy are less likely to receive annual diabetic eye exams than white patients, according to a recent Northwestern Medicine study published in JAMA Ophthalmology.

The findings demonstrate how social determinants of health can fuel disparities in monitoring for diabetic retinopathy, a common complication of diabetes, for patients of different racial and ethnic groups.

“This points to the need to really understand the ‘why’ factor and how we can actually turn the corner to get these patients to be seen more often so that they don’t have vision-threatening diseases,” said Dustin French, Ph.D., professor of Ophthalmology and of Medical Social Sciences in the Division of Determinants of...