A qualitative exploration of eyecare professional perspectives on Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) care

Abstract

18Despite the existence of evidence-based recommendations to decrease risk and progression of Age-19 Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) for some time, self-reported practices suggest that eyecare 20 professionals' advice and people with AMD's adherence to these recommendations can be very 21 poor. This study uses qualitative methods to explore Australian eyecare professionals' perspective 22 34Factors impacting AMD care identified through analysis of the transcripts were coded to three 35 categories of influence: patient-centered, practitioner-centered, and structural factors. Eyecare 36 professionals considered poor care pathways, people with AMD's poor disease understanding / 37 denial, and cost of care / lack of funding, as the most significant barriers to AMD care; they 38 considered shared care model, access, and communication as the most significant enablers to good 39 AMD care. These findings suggest that Australian eyecare professionals perceive that there is a need 40 for improved patient support systems and appropriately funded, clearer care pathway to benefit 41 people with AMD.3 42 65 although no consistent pattern could be detected [9]. Comparative data on Australian 66 ophthalmologists was unfortunately not collected.

Survey of Australian primary eyecare management of choroidal naevus patients

“…That study also emphasised concerns for under-or over-referral of choroidal naevus patients, concluding there is a need for further education in this area (28). This is consistent with a recent study on AMD interventions, which noted that despite longstanding evidence-based recommendations for AMD management, practices by health care professionals remained poor and inconsistent (29). Future studies could investigate the barriers to applying clinical practice guidelines for choroidal naevus, including appropriate strategies to overcome barriers and develop more cohesive management paradigms.…”

Development of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Questionnaire for age-related macular degeneration patients

“…The items in the three domains of knowledge, attitude and practice were analysed by the team and were then grouped and named into 17 subdomains. Few previous studies have focused on awareness on AMD worldwide and only one study was identified on KAP of AMD that was published in Australia in 2020 [43] . It was done on patients diagnosed with AMD and eye care practitioners.…”