Can a public health package on glaucoma reach its target population?

Abstract

Purpose A pilot study to assess how successful a newspaper advertisement and a radio interview about glaucoma are at reaching their target population. Methods The health intervention comprised two components: an interview on local radio and an advertisement in the local paper. Our target population were residents aged 45 years and above in either Southall (West London) or the Isle of Wight (IOW). A questionnaire was developed to be carried out pre-and postintervention. The data from both locations pre and post were coded and cleaned. Tests of significance were carried out to assess statistical significance for differences in proportion, with tests for trend used where appropriate. All statistical analyses were carried out using Stata7. Results Overall, the proportion who had heard of glaucoma increased from 54% before the intervention to 60% after (w 2 ¼ 3.7, P ¼ 0.055). The proportion who had heard of the disease increased by 13% (w 2 ¼ 8.76, P ¼ 0.003) in Southall and by 8% (w 2 ¼ 5.02, P ¼ 0.025) on the IOW. The proportion reporting seeing the advert increased significantly in both areas with greater effect in Southall. Those reporting hearing the radio interview only increased in Southall. On the IOW, females were more knowledgeable and responded more positively to the intervention. This differed in Southall where males tended to be the positive responders. Conclusion In both areas a significant effect on those having heard of glaucoma was found. This could be attributed to both the advert and interview in Southall but would appear to be attributable to the newspaper advertisement alone on the IOW.

The awareness, perceptions and experiences of primary open angle glaucoma patients in Lagos Nigeria

“…Baker et al 24 reported that while social marketing media strategies raise awareness about glaucoma, they do not influence health seeking behaviour. They advocate the addition of interpersonal interaction and community development to produce a change in behaviour.…”

Can a public health intervention improve awareness and health-seeking behaviour for glaucoma?

“…A pilot study has shown that knowledge of glaucoma in the Indian population in Southall Ealing was low 12. Our research group has gained considerable background information on positive predictive values of glaucoma referrals and optometric practice within the area 13.…”

What do glaucoma specialists know about their patients?

“…Conclusion: Glaucoma specialists are familiar with the treatment patterns of their patients. The knowledge of glaucoma specialists of their patients' subjective attitudes to glaucoma-related issues deserves further Introduction Public awareness of glaucoma and patients' compliance in glaucoma management have been investigated in several recent studies [1,2,4,7,8,10,12,14,16]. Interestingly, no data are available about glaucoma doctors' knowledge and insight into the patients' circumstances or opinions [5,6,9] of their disease.…”