Abstract
Purpose:
Glaucoma is a slow, progressive disease that is among the leading causes of blindness worldwide. However, patient adherence to treatment is exceedingly low. We performed a retrospective study to determine the role of telephone reminders in increasing adherence.
Methods:
This retrospective, case-controlled study included randomly selected subjects from a cataract and primary eye care clinic (CPEC) and a specialty glaucoma clinic. Subjects in the CPEC clinic received telephone reminders while those in the glaucoma clinic did not. Each sample was selected to have similar proportions of follow-up recommendations of 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months, and subjects were considered adherent if they returned within the specified timeframe. Chi-square tests were conducted to compare adherence rates between different clinics, age groups, genders, races, insurance statuses, glaucoma diagnoses, number of ocular medications, and follow-up recommendations. A logistic regression model was used to determine the odds ratios for each factor.
Results:
A total of 144 subjects from the glaucoma clinic and 151 subjects from the CPEC clinic were included. There was no significant difference in follow-up rates between the glaucoma clinic (68.1%) and the CPEC clinic (65.6%) (P=0.65). We found that patients who were on more than two ocular medications were more likely to return for follow-up (OR=3.99 95%CI 1.92-8.30). Subjects ages 50 to 80 (71.4%) were more likely to follow-up than their younger (57.9%) and older (54.9%) peers.
Conclusions:
The follow-up adherence of patients in a primary eye care clinic who receive telephone reminders is similar to patients in a glaucoma clinic who do not. Young and elderly subjects are less likely to follow-up.