الفهرس 
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Abstract
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major medical problem throughout the world, diabetes cause an array of long-term systemic complications that have considerable impact on the patient as well as society.
Patients with diabetes often develop ophthalmic complication, such as corneal abnormalities, glaucoma, iris revascularization, cataracts, and neuropathies but the most common of these complications is diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetic retinopathy was estimated as an important cause of blindness, After 15 years of diabetes, approximately 2% of diabetics become blind, and about 10% develop severe visual impairment.
The family physician is responsible for increase health awareness for diabetic patients about prevention and early detection of diabetic retinopathy.
The main goal of the study is Promotion of health status of diabetic patients, while the specific objectives were to detect prevalence of DR among type II diabetic patients, assess the awareness of diabetic patients about the screening of diabetic retinopathy and to clarify the determinants of diabetic retinopathy.
This study is a cross sectional study in which 105 diabetic patients were interviewed and ophthalmological assessment was done.
It was conducted in Al-Shoaar FHU and Kafr_Shokr FHC, both were selected to represent the population of Qaluobia governorate in both urban and rural sectors.
In the current study, Diabetic retinopathy was diagnosed in 51.45% of the diabetic patients and diabetic maculopathy was diagnosed in 13.3% of the patients.
It was found that 62.8% of the patients had never had a fundus examination prior to this study examination. In 57% of the patients, the barrier for performing it was negligence and the lack of the awareness about its importance.
There is general awareness of complications of diabetes among a majority of diabetic patients (70.5%); however there is little awareness about the importance of the screening (37%).
There is lack of the awareness about the treatment options if DR is early detected (94%) and only 13.3% of the patients know the effect of good blood sugar control on the DR.
The main source of the patients’ knowledge is mainly from the physicians (61%) then from friends and families (29.5%). Media has a little role in their knowledge (9.5%). The family physicians play an important role in increasing the patients’ awareness (39%) although the family medicine concept is not well-established in Egypt yet.
Awareness creation is the corner-stone in the creation of any successful program aimed to reducing Diabetic Retinopathy.
And the family physicians have a major role in increasing the patients’ awareness and health education.
The physicians should address the patient barriers, provide individual care for each patient and give health education to motivate patients to increase adherence to the screening examination for diabetic retinopathy. And health insurance is needed to cover all diabetic patients to allow a well-defined policy of follow-up visits.
Magnify the role of media in increasing the awareness of the diabetic patients and support the idea of prevention and early detection of the diseases of the whole community.