Prevalence of Dry Eye in Type II Diabetic Patients in Upper Egypt

ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetes mellitus with hyperglycemia is due to impaired insulin secretion or action o both . Dry eye syndrome in diabetes 2 is due to affecting tear film layers and itsstability.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of dry eye in type II diabetic patients in Upper Egypt.
Methods: In this prospective randomized study included 150 eyes of 75 persons were recruited in the current study, where 100 eyes of 50 diabetic patients were considered as group I (cases), while 50 eyes of 25 non-diabetic persons were considered as group II (control). All patients in the study were undergone comprehensive ophthalmic examination.
Results: Among group 1, males 27 (54%) while 23 (46%) were females, meanwhile, among controls, males 15 (60%) and 10 (40%) were females with no statistically significant difference as regards gender between groups. While the age, despite the relatively small difference in mean age, controls were found to be significantly younger than cases (p<0.0001). As regards to severity of dry eye measured by Schiermer's test, there was a statistically significant difference between cases and controls where the p value was 0.021,and severity of dry eye measured by BUT, there was a statistically significant difference between cases and controls where the p value 0.046.Testing the correlation between both tests were strong statistically.
Conclusion: The findings of the recent study and similar studies support that diabetic patients have an elevated prevalence of dry eye syndrome than normal individuals.