Global prevalence of diabetic retinopathy: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

With increasing diabetes trends worldwide, morbidity, mortality and associated costs due to diabetes-related complications are a global public health concern. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is among the leading causes of vision loss at the global level; accurate estimates of DR burden is of crucial importance for planning, implementing and evaluating DR prevention and care interventions.The available evidence on DR prevalence at the global level, dating back to 2008, only considered data from selected regions. Taking into account the rapidly changing patterns in DR epidemiology, the aim of the current study is to carry out a systematic review and meta-analysis to derive solid and updated estimates on global and setting-specific DR prevalence.