PURPOSE: To examine and document the diabetic retinopathy changes among patients attending diabetic eye camps in Kolar district and to assess the awareness of diabetic retinopathy and the factors influencing it, in patients attending the diabetic eye camps.

METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted on 250 patients attending diabetic eye camps conducted every month, with prior publicity, in Kolar district between December 2015 to June 2017. All diabetic patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were interviewed about their awareness of DR with the help of a questionnaire. These patients were then subjected to an ophthalmic examination and were graded based on their fundus findings. Questionnaires were evaluated and scored and subjects were grouped into Excellent , Good, Poor and Very poor categories based on their scores.

RESULTS: Our study was conducted on 250 diabetic patients comprising of 149 male (59.6%) and 101 female (40.4%) patients. Prevalence of diabetes among the study population was found to be 20.80 %. In this study 11.2% of the subjects had excellent, 24.8% had good, 9.6% had poor and 54.4% had very poor awareness regarding DR. We also found that 2.8% of the subjects had good, 10.4% had poor and 86.8% had very poor awareness regarding treatment of diabetic retinopathy.

CONCLUSION : Lack of knowledge regarding the need for screening for diabetic retinopathy was found to be a major barrier to compliance with regular screening.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop strategies to educate diabetic patients about this potentially blinding complication of diabetes