Knowledge and awareness of glaucoma in Mexican patients with and without glaucoma diagnosis in an Ophthalmology Referral Center

Abstract

AIM: To assess and compare knowledge and awareness of glaucoma in subjects with and without glaucoma diagnosis attending an Ophthalmology Referral Center. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Asociación Para Evitar la Ceguera in Mexico City, using a questionnaire formulated by a group of experts following the Delphi panel rules, and pre-tested in a pilot study. The questionnaire was applied and compared between: glaucoma patients, relatives of glaucoma patients and patients without glaucoma. Socio-demographic data was collected to assess correlation with the level of knowledge using Logistic regression models, estimating the odds ratios (OR), 95% confidence intervals, and P<0.05. RESULTS: Three hundred and ninety-four subjects were enrolled; with a median age of 61y. One hundred and thirty-four (34%) were patients with glaucoma, 152 (38.6%) patients without glaucoma, and 108 (27.4%) relatives of patients with glaucoma. Two hundred and ninety-one (73.9%) participants were aware of the term “glaucoma”. Regarding knowledge 46.7% had moderate knowledge, 37.8% had poor knowledge, and 15.5% good knowledge. Overall, relatives of glaucoma patients had the highest scores, and patients without glaucoma got the lowest scores. A positive correlation was found between better knowledge and frequent ophthalmological examinations OR 2.24 (P=0.02), higher education level OR 4.17 (P=0.00) and having a family member with glaucoma OR 3.28 (P=0.00). CONCLUSION: Awareness and knowledge of glaucoma in subjects attending an Ophthalmology Referral Center is predominantly moderate or poor. This has important implications regarding attitudes that can result in lack of follow up in ophthalmological care.

Awareness and knowledge of glaucoma among visitors of main public hospitals in Damascus, Syria: a cross-sectional study

“…Our findings show that gender has no relationship with knowledge or awareness, similar to previous studies [1,4,5,9,18,20,22]. There is no relationship between age and awareness of Glaucoma, Like a previous study [9,15,18,20,26]. And in contrast to previous studies that showed a relationship between older age and awareness [2,3,5,14], another study showed that the knowledge of the youngest was greater, but not by a significant [1].…”

“…Therefore, a sufficient sample should be gained in the case of accurate results. In previous studies, social relations were mentioned as the most important source of knowledge [ 1 , 4 , 9 , 15 , 18 , 26 , 27 ], and in other studies, the Internet was the most important [ 5 ], health workers [ 20 ]. In our study, the most important are social relations.…”

Investigation of Knowledge, Awareness, and Practices of Glaucoma in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia

“…In this study, 221 (37.8%) participants had heard about glaucoma, compared with 73.9% in a survey in Mexico [ 16 ], 16.9% in a study at two family health centers in Istanbul [ 17 ], and 26.1% in a study in North India [ 18 ]. These differences may be attributed to regional differences in awareness campaigns, healthcare facilities, and public education programs, resulting in variations in glaucoma knowledge among study participants.…”

Initial medication adherence in newly diagnosed glaucoma patients: three adherence measures

“…Low medication adherence can reflect the uncertainty of patients about the methods of application and the difficulty in administering the drops [26] , and new strategies must be developed such as creating new containers that are easier to handle for the elderly. Educational strategies must be carried out to get information to the population, brochures should be available on various shelves of health care units so that patients can be informed, also knowing that patients prefer an oral explanation, brochures, videos and exhibits could be held and/or illustrative educational videos could be shown in the waiting rooms to inform patients [27] .…”