Impact of treatment cessation on incidence and progression of retinopathy in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort study

This cohort study investigated the association between treatment cessation and incidence/progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Data were extracted from electronic medical records at the University of the Ryukyu Hospital and the Tomishiro Central Hospital of Okinawa, Japan. We enrolled 417 diabetic patients without DR (N = 281) and with nonproliferative DR (N = 136) at the baseline. Treatment cessation was defined as failing to attend outpatient clinics for at least twelve months prior to the baseline. After a median follow-up of 7 years, we compared the incidence/progression rate of DR including nonproliferative and proliferative DR between patients with and without treatment cessation and calculated the odds ratio (OR) in the treatment cessation group using a logistic regression model. The overall prevalence of treatment cessation was 13