To investigate the fundus examination rate in diabetic patients and the public health factors associated with the fundus examination rate.

We analyzed the results of the third Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We investigated the fundus examination rate in patients who had diabetes mellitus for more than 3 months during the previous year and determined the relationship of public health factors with the fundus examination rate.

In all 547 patients (38.1%) received the fundus examination out of 1,437 total patients with diabetes mellitus. We found that many public health factors influenced the higher fundus examination rate, including patients who were residents in urban areas, women, office workers, university graduates, patients with a higher family income or more than 5 years duration of diabetes mellitus, patients with current insulin treatment, treatment of diabetes mellitus, education about diabetes mellitus, subjective visual problems or subjective health problems. However, age, marital status, health insurance and residential district did not influence the fundus examination rate.

The Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey is the largest health survey in Korea. This study is meaningful as a population-based study, not a clinic-based cross-sectional study and it suggests the basic data for improving the fundus examination rate in diabetes mellitus patients.