Research articleTelephone Intervention to Promote Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Among the Urban Poor
Section snippets
Background
Diabetic retinopathy is the primary cause of new-onset blindness in adults aged 20–64 years.1 Primary and secondary preventive measures for visual problems related to diabetes include both diabetes management and early ophthalmic screening. Improvements in metabolic control decrease the risk of retinopathy in both type 12, 3 and type 2 diabetes.4 Dilated fundus examinations (DFE) can detect retinal disease in the absence of symptoms and early enough for treatments to effectively prevent serious
Methods
The VIP study was a randomized controlled behavioral intervention study from 2001 to 2005, whose participants were primarily residents of Bronx NY recruited by telephone through three healthcare centers. To be eligible for the study, subjects had to be aged >18 years, diagnosed with diabetes, able to speak and read (or be read to in) English or Spanish, capable of providing informed consent, have access to a telephone, and report not having had a DFE in the previous 12 months. The study
Results
The results of this behavioral intervention study included: the flow of subjects through this study to the analysis of data, demographic characteristics of the sample, the primary outcome results, association of risk perceptions and other variables at pre- and post-intervention with the primary outcome, and the impact of each telephone call on obtaining a DFE.
Figure 1 portrays the flow of participants from the available pool of subjects for screening through study analyses. Of the 10,273 names
Conclusion
A limited telephone intervention delivered to a low-income, urban, minority population can significantly improve participation in diabetic retinopathy screening. A sample of 598 adults with diabetes was recruited to evaluate a tailored telephone intervention compared to a standard print intervention in both Spanish and English. These subjects are similar in their initial eligibility response to the almost 30% of respondents to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey for 2001 who
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