Rosacea Linked to Higher Risk of Diabetic Retinopathy Progression

Although it doesn’t directly cause diabetic retinopathy, the systemic inflammation associated with rosacea may exacerbate eye conditions in people with diabetes. Photo: wikimedia/M. Sand, et al. Click image to enlarge. Patients with rosacea and nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) faced a significantly greater risk of progressing to proliferative disease, as well as requiring a greater need for retinal interventions, according to a study presented at the 2026 annual ARVO meeting in Denver.The study evaluated whether rosacea influenced diabetic retinopathy progression and vision-threatening complications in patients with NPDR. Researchers used a patient database to compare 4,846 NPDR patients with rosacea against 146,869 controls without it. After propensity score matching, 4,830 patients remained in each cohort.The researchers tracked rates of progression to proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), diabetic macular edema (DME), vitreous hemorrhage, tractional retinal detachment and neovascular glaucoma over one-, three- and five-year periods. They also analyzed the need for intravitreal anti-VEGF injections, panretinal photocoagulation and pars plana vitrectomy. Secondary analyses compared treated and untreated rosacea patients, while sensitivity analyses adjusted for diabetes duration.At five years, rosacea patients demonstrated more than double the risk of developing PDR compared with control patients. They also showed an increased risk for DME, vitreous hemorrhage and neovascular glaucoma.The rosacea cohort additionally required substantially more retinal treatment. Anti-VEGF injection rates were nearly four times higher, while the need for panretinal photocoagulation and pars plana vitrectomy also increased significantly.Researchers noted that rosacea-treated patients showed a lower risk of PDR progression than untreated patients, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. Sensitivity analyses accounting for diabetes duration produced results consistent with the primary findings.The authors concluded in their abstract that rosacea was associated with a roughly twofold increased risk of PDR development and a greater likelihood of requiring ocular intervention among NPDR patients. However, they noted that the retrospective study design could not guarantee causality or determine whether aggressive treatment of rosacea or diabetes would reduce progression risk.Original abstract ©2026 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.Click here for the source. Zaidu Z, Alshaikhsalama A, Patel K. Rosacea and increased neovascular progression of diabetic retinopathy. May 7, 2026. ARVO 2026 annual meeting. This article was developed by the editorial staff in conjunction with experts in the field. In the process, AI may have been among the editorial tools used to meet the goals of human editors, who approved all content.