Abstract
Purpose: :
A pilot study was conducted to determine the completion rate and results of an eyeglass wearing compliance questionnaire.
Methods: :
The one page "Tohono O’odham Vision Screening Program Parent/Guardian Eyeglass Questionnaire" was mailed to parents of 251 3- to 10-year-old Tohono O’odham Native American children who had been prescribed and provided with eyeglasses within the previous year. The Tohono O’odham Vision Screening Program provides children with a pair of glasses for school and home, and spares are available upon request. The mailing envelope included a cover letter requesting parent input, the questionnaire, and a stamped return envelope. An initial mailing was sent July 2009, and a second follow-up mailing was sent to non-responders in November 2009. In an attempt to increase the response rate from non-responders, a program logo pen was included as a gift to parents in the second mailing.
Results: :
Response rate to the initial mailing was 20.7%, and to date, the response rate is 30.6%. Responses indicated that 34.3% of children’s glasses were currently lost or broken. The most common reasons parents/guardians reported related to why they think their child may not be wearing their glasses included: only wears glasses when feels like he/she needs them 36.4 %, they are broken, scratched, or lost 29.9 %, forgets to bring the glasses to school, or forgets to bring them home 37.7 %, glasses are uncomfortable or do not fit well 23.4 %, takes them off when he/she goes out to play so they don’t get broken 46.8 %. On a scale from 1 to 5, with 1= never and 5= always the average rate of glasses wear was 3.40 in general, 4.36 at school, and 3.25 at home. Parents rated importance of glasses wear on average as 4.56, with 1= not at all important and 5= extremely important.
Conclusions: :
The results of the survey provided some interesting responses from parents/guardians. In the future additional efforts will be implemented to increase response rates from parents. Some ideas for increasing response rates include offering an incentive when the survey is returned, contacting non-responders by phone and completing it over the phone, and re-mailing the questionnaire if no contact is made by phone.
Keywords: astigmatism • amblyopia • visual acuity