OBJECTIVE: Prevalence rates of visual impairment and retinopathy were compared in 1992 people with normal glucose tolerance, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), or newly diagnosed non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Glucose tolerance status was based on an oral glucose tolerance test after exclusion of those with a history of diabetes and/or diabetes medication use in an upper middle-class community of older white adults in southern California between 1984 and 1987. RESULTS: Although many sex-specific comparisons were made between glucose tolerance groups, only a few emerged as statistically significant. Among those, women with IGT had significantly higher age-adjusted rates of visual impairment (10.8%) than women with normal glucose tolerance (4.4%). Among men, those with IGT had significantly higher age-adjusted rates of visual impairment (7.9%) than men with newly diagnosed NIDDM (4.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Low frequencies of retinopathy were found in all three glucose tolerance groups.