Abstract
Purpose :
We surveyed glaucoma patients on perspectives regarding different aspects of glaucoma care, preferences for different types of treatment, and reasons behind those preferences.
Methods :
A 24-question interview survey was administered to glaucoma follow-up patients in a New York City-based ophthalmology clinic practice in both faculty practice and resident clinics. Questions focused on themes of adherence to both medication and appointments, barriers to adherence, and glaucoma treatment preferences. Data was collected for demographics, glaucoma diagnosis, follow-up frequency, number of drops used, glaucoma severity, and maximum intraocular pressure (IOP). Multivariate ANOVA was used to determine statistical significance.
Results :
Patients felt it was extremely important to maintain medication adherence and found it relatively straightforward to use their medications. The most difficult aspects of adhering to appointments reported were “difficulty with transportation” (38%) and “time-consuming” (24%). The top three most important aspects for patients’ glaucoma care were controlling IOP (55.0%), reading fine print (53.0%), and driving a vehicle during the day (27.0%). Only 7% of all participants felt that the COVID-19 pandemic impeded care acquisition.
Patients with more advanced glaucoma defined by ICD-10 code reported a better understanding of their diagnosis (p<0.05). Patients who were male (p<0.05), with advanced glaucoma (p<0.05) and those seen in the faculty practice (p<0.05) as compared to the resident clinic were more satisfied with their visual outcomes.
Patients seen in the faculty practice (p<0.05) and with more severe glaucoma (p<0.05) were more likely to choose drops over both laser and surgery if the side-effects were severe. However, both groups chose laser (p<0.05) and surgery (p<0.05) over drops if the side-effects were mild.
Conclusions :
Patients most valued controlling their IOP, reading fine print and driving a car during the day. Patients reported barriers to adherence included medication costs, difficulty remembering their drop schedule, difficulty using their drops, transportation difficulties, and time. We found that patient preferences for treatment type did not change despite the challenges to in-person ophthalmology visits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.