Knowledge, attitude, practice and quality of life assessment in glaucoma- a cross sectional survey

Abstract

Aim: To determine knowledge, attitude and practice of patients with glaucoma and to analyze the quality of life of patients with glaucoma using the GQL-15 questionnaire. Materials and Methods: 62 patients with a known diagnosis of glaucoma and started on medical management were included in the study. On the first visit patients were counseling about the nature of the disease, dose, duration and frequency of medications, were informed of side effects and technique of instillation. On the second visit patients were assessed with a validated KAP questionnaire and GQL-15 quality of life questionnaire. The questions were administered in the local language by trained optometrists and health care personnel. Results: The inter item correlation between knowledge, attitude and practice was found to be 0.897, 0.877 and 0.765 there by validating the questionnaire.  Forty nine (87.5%) of patients were found to have adequate knowledge regarding disease, drug, dose , frequency and proper method of instillation of eye drops. Forty one (73.32%) of patients were found to have a positive attitude towards usage of eye drops and the remaining 15(26.78%) negative attitude.  Safe practice was followed by 49 ( 87.5%) of patients and unsafe with 7( 12,57%) GQL-15 questionnaire applied at the time of second visit showed 40 (71.42%) of patients with low GQL score. Conclusion: Our study highlights that awareness and dissemination of information on basic eye drop instillation technique improves patient knowledge awareness and practice patterns of this asymptomatic disease and can help patients adhere to management.