In Western countries, dRP is the most common cause of both severe visual impairment and blindness in working age (Kellner 2008), although documented retinopathies have almost halved since 2009 (Haag 2018).
There is no gender predilection, except in Japan, where more female than male patients are affected (Diederich 2020).
The disease does not count as a late symptom; it can be present early (Herold 2020). There is also no lower threshold of HbA1c at which the risk and progression of dRP would not occur or would regress (Haag 2018).
Signs of retinopathy are found in >95% of patients in type 1 diabetes after 15 years of disease, 50% of which are at the proliferative stage (Herold 20210). In type 2 diabetes , this figure is up to 60% over the same period.
At diagnosis, however, up to 20 % of diabetes 2 patients already show signs of retinopathy. The occurrence of macular edema (DME), for example, is - according to epidemiological studies - dependent on the type of disease, the duration of the disease and the treatment concept.
In the USA, dRP is a leading cause of blindness between the ages of 20 and 74 (Kasper 2015).