Diabetic Retinopathy Vs. Macular Degeneration

Many people with diabetes wonder if their blurred vision signals the beginning of diabetic retinopathy or perhaps another common cause of vision loss, macular degeneration.

While blurred vision occurs with both conditions, there are distinct differences between diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration.

First, macular degeneration generally results in central vision loss while diabetic retinopathy results in dispersed areas of vision loss.

Here's a normal view:


Here's that same view through the eyes of someone with macular degeneration:


Here's that same view through the eyes of someone with diabetic retinopathy:


You may be able to turn your head to compensate for central vision loss. Compensation for dispersed loss from retinopathy is more challenging.

Another difference between the two is the age at which they develop.

Where age-related macular degeneration usually occurs in an older age group (60 years and older), diabetic retinopathy can and does strike a younger population.

The ADA states:

"After 20 years of diabetes, nearly all patients with type 1 diabetes and >60% of patients with type 2 diabetes have some degree of retinopathy."
- American Diabetes Association: Diabetic Retinopathy

The average age for diagnosis of type 2 diabetes has shifted from the 40s and 50s in recent years towards a younger population, occurring with troubling frequency in adolescents. Type 1 diabetes can occur in children as young as 2 years old.

Twenty years on from childhood or the teen years places someone with diabetes at risk of losing their eyesight at the height of midlife. The ADA says:

"Diabetic retinopathy is estimated to be the most frequent cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 20–74 years."

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Photos of vision loss from NIH National Eye Institute via Wikipedia.