Posters

Glaucoma and patient adherence: does doctor-patient communication affect patients' outcomes?

Poster Details

First Author: A.Papazacharia GREECE

Co Author(s):    Z. Tegou   G. Karagiannidis-Stampoulis   S. Bournoutou   S. Moutzouri   E. Kanonidou        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Early diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma has been found clinically beneficial and cost effective as it significantly delays visual field deterioration. Most patients receive IOP-lowering topical medications for the treatment of glaucoma and need lifelong treatment and regular follow-ups to improve outcomes. Additionally, many glaucoma patients require more than one class of ocular hypotensive drugs to control their IOP. Adherence to glaucoma pharmacotherapy is associated with patient-related, medication-related, physician-related and environmental factors and non-adherence can be both intentional and unintentional. Our purpose is to emphasize the importance of doctor-patient communication in enhancing the patients’ faith in treatment effectiveness.

Setting:

Department of Ophthalmology, Hippokrateion General Hospital of Thessaloníki, Thessaloníki, Greece

Methods:

78 patients with OAG or OH were recruited from our glaucoma unit and interviewed using a structured questionnaire that addressed patient-, medication-, environment- and doctor-related non-adherence factors such as fear of potential adverse events, high medication cost, low belief in the necessity of eye drops for glaucoma, absence of symptoms, depression, concerns about eye drops, other health problems, and low trust in the doctor’s intentions.

Results:

Overall, the patients who participated in the investigation showed high-level adherence, especially after discussing their concerns with their doctor. Their concerns mostly involved concerns about eye drops (7 patients), low adherence due to high medication cost (7 patients) and fear of potential adverse events (5 patients). Only 2 out of 78 patients admitted low adherence due to low belief in the necessity of eye drops and only 1 showed low trust in the doctor’s intentions.

Conclusions:

Patients are driven to nonadherence by an imbalance between their perceived need for medication and their concerns about taking it. Patient-centered communication techniques can engage the patient in shared decision making about medication, thereby redefining the good patient as someone who works with his or her health care provider to address adherence barriers.

Financial Disclosure:

None