Published: 1 March 2022 at 16:24
Find out about research published by members of ARU's Vision and Eye Research Institute (VERI) in February 2022.
Modifiable risk factors of diabetic retinopathy (DR) were aggregated and the credibility of the evidence was assessed in an umbrella review published by Trott et al. (1). Thirteen studies were included in the umbrella review, covering 34 independent outcomes and a total of 824,372 participants.
The authors found positive associations between insulin usage and diabetic macular oedema and DR risk in people with Type 2 diabetes. Vitamin D deficiency, obesity and sedentary behaviour were associated with diabetic retinopathy risk. Intensive blood pressure control was shown to reduce DR risk by 20% and moderate physical activity by 31%.
Aggius-Vella et al. (2) investigated auditory distance discrimination in front and rear space. Blindfolded normally sighted participants were tested using sounds in both front and rear space and their performance was compared on two auditory spatial tasks between these regions of space. The thresholds for both tasks were lower for front space than for rear space, consistent with the notion that auditory representations of space are better calibrated for front than for rear space, because of the availability of vision for the former.
1. Trott, M., Driscoll, R., Pardhan, S., 2022. Associations between diabetic retinopathy and modifiable risk factors: An umbrella review of meta-analyses. Diabetic Medicine. doi: 10.1111/dme.14796
2. Aggius-Vella, E., Gori, M., Campus, C., Moore, B. C. J., Pardhan, S., Kolarik, A. J., Van der Stoep, N., 2022. Auditory distance perception in front and rear space. Hearing Research. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2022.108468