Study on Causes of Noncompliance to Anti-glaucoma Medication in Glaucoma Patients

Author(s): Nirupama Damarla, Hymavathi Bommisetti, Madhavi Chevuturi, Sanjay Reddy Tadisina, Satyanarayana Reddy

Purpose: To have an in-depth understanding regarding the compliance of patients, their knowledge and attitude towards AGM (Anti-Glaucoma Medication) and also to explore various factors affecting AGM compliance in glaucoma patients attending a medical college attached hospital in Hyderabad, Telangana. Materials and Methods: We have done a cross-sectional study in ophthalmology outpatient department of two teaching hospitals in South India. Data collection was done with the help of a modified questionnaire previously published in studies. A total of 27 questions were included in the questionnaire. The data was collected. MS-Excel was used for coding. It was then analyzed using SPSS software (version 20, IBM USA). Results: A total of 229 patients were recruited in the study. Of them 56.3% were males and 43.7% were females. The mean age of patients in our study group was 55.03 years. In our study there was no correlation between age, gender and expenditure on AGM and compliance. 170 (74.2%) patients did not miss their AGM dosage in a month. The most common reason for missing their AGM was forgetfulness and the next common reason was ‘medication got over’. We found an association between patients using AGM for longer duration and better compliance (p value=0.026), but there was no correlation between age, gender and expenditure on AGM and compliance. Conclusion: Our study was done on patients who have come to the OPD for follow up, their compliance would be better than the patients who do not come for followup examinations. Hence community-based studies need to be conducted to know more regarding the reasons for lack of compliance. Also, ophthalmologists need to pay attention to the issue of non-compliance toward AGM among glaucoma patients attending the hospitals. A support system to remind patients about glaucoma medications is required to improve compliance.