US study warns of vision loss in African-Americans

People with an African heritage and type 1 diabetes have a high risk of losing vision in at least one eye, according to findings of an American new study, Reuter's reports.

Lead author ophthalmologist Dr Monique S Roy, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark told Reuters that while previous studies have examined the rate of visual impairments among Caucasians with type 1 diabetes, to her knowledge there have been no similar studies conducted for a large group of African Americans.As part of the study, researchers followed around 500 African Americans with type 1 diabetes over a period of six years to determine the rate of visual loss and associated risk factors.