November is Diabetes Awareness Month

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), in data studies from 2012, 29.1 million Americans, or 9.3% of the population, has diabetes. Of these, 8.1 million, or 28%, are undiagnosed. Data from the AOA’s evidence-based clinical practice guideline for diabetes finds that diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of new cases of blindness and low vision in Americans from ages 20 to 74 years. The ADA numbers also show that the rate of increase of diabetes from 2010 to 2012 was 13%. Clearly, diabetes is growing public health issue in America and one the directly affects the eye and vision.

However, more than half of Americans do not know comprehensive eye exams can detect diabetes, and 79% of Americans are unaware that diabetic eye diseases have no visible symptoms, according to the 2016 American Eye-Q Survey by the American Optometric Association. “In 2014 alone, eye doctors found diabetes-related manifestations in 240,000 patients who were not aware they had diabetes …” according to a 2016 press release by the American Optometric Association.

If you have not had a comprehensive eye examination in 2017, please call our office!