AIM: To describe the design and preliminary results of the hospital based epidemiological study for diabetic retinopathy(HBESDR), an ongoing epidemiological study to estimate the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy(DR) and to elucidate the clinical, anthropometric, biochemical and any other risk factors associated with diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: Totally 2000 diabetes will be recruited from the Diabetes eye clinic in the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University. All subjects underwent blood sugar estimation and Oral Glucose Tolerance Test to diagnose diabetes. All diabetes would undergo complete questionnaire, a comprehensive eye examination. Blood and urine would be collected for biochemical investigations. All fundus photographs for any DR will be graded. Participants who need treatment will be sent to the ophthalmic clinic and follow-up interval program for all subjects will be suggested. A computerized database is created for the records. RESULTS: To date, 1174 diabetes have been recruited, there were 350(29.81%) DR in all diabetes, most of them were with mild non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) (139, 39.71%); 71(20.29%) moderate NPDR, 66(18.86%) severe NPDR, 74(21.14%) proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Females, longer duration of diabetes, family history of diabetes and hypertension had a statistically significant increase in risk of any DR. CONCLUSION: The study is expected to provide an estimate of the overall prevalence of DR and the prevalence with different duration of diabetes and also a better understanding of the risk factors associated with DR.