Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate technology use among glaucoma patients and to compare patterns of use between adherent and non-adherent patients using a prospective, cross-sectional survey.
Methods :
188 subjects taking ≥1 glaucoma medication who received care in glaucoma clinics in Ann Arbor, MI and Baltimore, MD were included in the study. Participants completed a survey on demographic and disease characteristics, use of technology and self-reported adherence (measured by the validated Morisky Adherence Scale). Descriptive statistics were performed.
Results :
Subjects had been living with glaucoma for an average of 11.5 (SD 10.8) years. Just under half of the sample (41.5%) was ≥age 70. 27% of the sample reported poor adherence. Non-adherent patients were younger than adherent patients (mean 61.5, SD 17.3 vs mean 68.1, SD 12.7, p=0.006). Non-adherent patients were more likely to have internet access (97.7% vs 86.0% p = p=0.04) and to use a smartphone to text/email (68.4% vs 51.4% p = 0.07) and access the internet (64.1% vs 35.5%, p = 0.002). Patients ≥ age 70 were significantly less likely to be interested in receiving information about glaucoma by email or the internet (33.3% vs 52.7%, p=0.03). Although only 1.6% of subjects reported that their physician had ever recommended web-based glaucoma resources to them, 34.6% of subjects had visited a website to learn about glaucoma. Non adherent patients were more likely to have stronger emotions about what they read on the internet about glaucoma. Among patients who had searched for information about glaucoma online, 87.0% of non-adherent patients felt positive about the online experience compared to 78.0% of adherent patients (p=0.53). Conversely, 69.6% of non-adherent patients also reported negative emotions about their online experience compared to 40.8% of adherent patients (p=0.04).
Conclusions :
Younger and more poorly adherent patients are using online resources to learn more about glaucoma more frequently than more adherent patients. As they population ages, it will be important to both create high-quality online glaucoma resources and direct patients towards these resources to support their disease self-management.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.