Diabetic macular oedema on the rise

The number of diagnosed cases of diabetic macular oedema (DMO) in the diabetes population across the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan are expected to increase at an annual rate of 1.99% from 2.89 million in 2024 to 3.46 million in 2034.

Analytics company GlobalData’s report, ‘Diabetic Macular Oedema – Epidemiology Forecast to 2034’, projects that among those nations, the US will have the highest number of diagnosed prevalent cases of DMO, at 1.01 million, whereas Japan will have the lowest, at 130,000 cases.

In 2024, the disease burden in these countries showed a clear gender skew, with men accounting for around 57% of cases.

Adults aged 50 years and above accounted for just over 84% of the diagnosed prevalent cases of DMO in 2024, while younger adults aged 20–49 years accounted for approximately 16% of cases.

GlobalData estimated that in 2024, approximately 81% of diagnosed cases of DMO in these countries were centre-involving DMO (ci-DMO), whereas only 19% of them were non-centre-involving (nci-DMO).

Globally, DMO represents the major cause of vision impairment in diabetic patients with an increasing prevalence, said Antara Bhattacharya, associate project manager, epidemiology at GlobalData. “The disease management is challenging due to difficulty in early detection, proper management of blood sugar and/or blood pressure levels, risk of severe, irreversible vision loss and concurrent conditions, such as kidney disease. Additionally, effective treatment requires frequent, long-term administration.

“[A] research-based approach, working with a medical team on treatment and disease management and adopting lifestyle changes and coping strategies for reduced vision, can extend our understanding of the disease,” she added.