Background and Aim: With the intention of ascertaining the magnitude of the problem and to generate awareness, the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS), in 2014, took an initiative to detect the presence of DR among persons with diabetes in eye clinics across the length and breadth of the country. Hence the present study was undertaken with the aim to calculate the frequency of DR in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Materials & Methods: A total of 400 individuals were included in the study. All the patients were suffering from diabetes or were newly diagnosed case of diabetes that had come for the screening of diabetic retinopathy. The patients in whom the posterior segment was not visualized were excluded from the study.

Results: Total of 200 patients were diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy. It means that 50% patients were diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy. Out of the total 200 patients diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy, 55 patients were suffering from proliferative diabetic retinopathy and rest of 145 patients were diagnosed with non proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

Conclusion: The presence of diabetic retinopathy is found to be minimal in less than 5 years of diabetes age. It is more in patients having diabetes of duration 20–25 years and in all patients with duration of diabetes more than 25 years. PDR was found to be present more in patients having DM of longer duration.