ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Family Medicine and Primary Care
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1610114
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Health Innovations for Patient-Centered CareView all 30 articles
Patient Acceptance of AI-Assisted Diabetic Retinopathy Screening in Primary Care: Findings from a Questionnaire-Based Feasibility Study
Provisionally accepted
Malene Krogh1*
Marie Germund Nielsen2,3Gabriela Byskov Petersen4Morten Sig Ager Jensen1Martin Bach Jensen1Henrik Vorum5Niels Henrik Bruun6Jette Kolding Kristensen1- 1Center for General Practice, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
- 2The Clinical Nursing Research Unit, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
- 3Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
- 4Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen (SDCC), Herlev, Hovedstaden, Denmark
- 5Department of Ophthalmology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
- 6Research Data and Biostatistics, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Aim: This feasibility study investigates patients’ acceptance of AI-assisted diabetic retinopathy screening (DRS) in primary care. Method: Patients with type 2 diabetes from 12 primary care settings in Denmark underwent AI-assisted DRS as part of routine diabetes care and completed a questionnaire covering demographics, recent DRS, general health, mental well-being, trust in physician, competence in diabetes self-care, distrust in AI, and acceptance of future DRS. Results: 298 patients participated and completed the questionnaire. Acceptance of future AI-assisted DRS in primary care was higher than that of ophthalmologist-led screening, although patients still showed distrust towards AI. Findings indicated that greater competence in diabetes self-care was associated with higher acceptance of future AI-assisted DRS in primary care. Lower distrust in AI increased acceptance of future AI-assisted DRS in primary care, while higher distrust increased acceptance of ophthalmologist-led DRS. Conclusion: This study found that most patients accepted future AI-assisted DRS in primary care. Associations between acceptance and the factors examined are very small and may have limited or no clinical impact. Other factors, such as convenience of having DRS in primary care, may influence patient’s acceptance.
Keywords: artificial intelligence, type 2 diabetes, Diabetic retinopathy screening, Primary Care, patient acceptance, Questionnaire Development
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 26 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Krogh, Germund Nielsen, Byskov Petersen, Jensen, Jensen, Vorum, Bruun and Kolding Kristensen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Malene Krogh, Center for General Practice, Aalborg University, Aalborg, 9220, Denmark
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.