Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: 1 – to identify patients’ knowledge about glaucoma, its prevention and control. 2 – to identify personal characteristics. 3 – to verify the influence of biological characteristics in the knowledge of glaucoma, its prevention and control. 4 – to obtain support in order to make the doctor–patient relationship easier and to encourage the treatment of glaucoma. Methods: A survey was carried out among glaucoma suffers who were assisted in an eye unit, at a hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. The intentional sample was formed by patients who attended the appointments, from December 2001 to May 2002. A structured questionnaire was prepared, based on an exploratory study, and submitted to previously trial. The questionnaire was applied through interview. The following variables were taken into consideration; sex, age, education, professional situation, explanations of glaucoma and its knowledge. The test qui–square was applied for association analysis. Results: The sample was formed by 405 patient, 72,6% female; age range 20 and 92 years, average 66,2 years old, 44,4% studied some years in elementary school and 72,1% didn’t have any kind of professional activity. Out of the patients who declared they have received explanations about glaucoma’s control, 95,8% stated they know the disease well (p <0,000). The majority stated that glaucoma leads to blindness (89,4%), that it is " high pressure in the eye " (83,2%) and that provokes eye blurring (71,1%). Patients referred to the eye doctor specialist a source of explanations on glaucoma (49,9%). There was significant association between education and the knowledge they believe they have about glaucoma, and between this variable and the explanations received about it. The fact of receiving explanations is strongly associated with the level of knowledge declared by the interviewed patients. Conclusions: Patients demonstrated lack and inadequacy of knowledge in relation to glaucoma, its prevention and control. This fact suggests the need for educational actions aiming at spreading information on glaucoma among patients and the population as an attempt to prevent visual loss.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: biostatistics/epidemiology methodology