Abstract
Purpose :
To assess effectiveness of administering a brief educational program to a small population of Mandarin-speaking attendees at the Committed to Awareness through Research, Education and Support (CARES) Conference and analyze the utility of medical education as it relates to the under-recognized topic of glaucoma.
Methods :
A retrospective review of survey data from the 2018 CARES Conference was performed. Participants were asked to respond “yes” or “no” to statements about ophthalmic care and identify 8 glaucoma risk factors on two surveys. One survey was administered prior to the educational program, which consisted of a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation given in Mandarin by a fluent volunteer. The other survey was offered immediately after the program. The following variables were examined: number of risk factors identified correctly, and correct affirmative answers to statements on eye care.
Results :
Analysis was performed on the 17 participants that completed both surveys for the educational program at the conference. When asked to identify risk factors, participants improved their accuracy on average from 29% to 82% correct, resulting in a 53% relative improvement. Additionally, participant understanding improved on the importance of medication adherence, regular follow-ups, and glaucoma as a diagnosis, with relative improvements of 82%, 47%, 82%, respectively.
Conclusions :
A short educational program consisting of a slideshow presentation was given to an urban, non-English-speaking population and showed promising results, yielding academic improvements on a post-survey when compared to a pre-survey. Patient education is an underutilized resource in the improvement of outcomes and optimization of patient management. Further studies on a larger scale are needed to accurately gauge the benefit of patient education on glaucoma for specific urban populations in the U.S.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.