AIM: To investigate the relative factors of the incidence and development of diabetic retinopathy(DR).

METHODS: The retinopathy of the 631 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)was examined by ophthalmoscopy and fundus fluorescein angiography(FFA), and the relative factors which possibly associate with the incidence and development of DR were collected.

RESULTS: There were 205 patients with DR, the morbidity rate of DR was 32.5%(95%CI:28.82%-36.15%), the nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy(NPDR)and proliferative diabetic retinopathy(PDR)were 134 cases occupying 21.2%(95%CI: 18.04%-24.44%)and 71 cases occupying 11.3%(95%CI: 8.78%-13.72%)of the patients with DR, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that income, living environment, whether treatment by insulin, combined with diabetic nephropathy(DN), combined with diabetic peripheral neuropathy(DPN), hold on exercise, course of diabetes, fasting plasma glucose(FPG), 2 hours' postprandial plasma glucose(2hPG), glycosylated hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c), systolic blood pressure(SBP), total cholesterol(TC), urinary albumin excretion rate(UAER), serum creatinine(SCr), and blood urea nitrogen(BUN)were significant different among the patients without DR, the patients with NPDR and the patients with PDR(P<0.05 or P<0.01). Multivariate ordinal Logistic regression analysis showed that the incidence and development of DR increased in patients with longer course of diabetes, high HbA1c, high UAER and without exercise, and decreased in patients without DN and DPN(P<0.05 or P<0.01).

CONCLUSION: There was a high morbidity rate of DR in patients with patients with type 2 diabetes. The longer course of diabetes, high HbA1c, and without exercise were the independent development factors of DR, whether combined with DN, combined with DPN and UAER were indices for the incidence and development of DR.