Adherence and barriers to glaucoma topical medication

Abstract

AIM: To evaluate medication adherence among patients taking topical intraocular pressure(IOP)lowering treatment and ascertain if there are differences in medication adherence between patients treated by a glaucoma specialist and those who are followed up by a general ophthalmologist. Furthermore, to identify multiple obstacles contributing to poor adherence.METHODS: Cross-sectional survey study was conducted among a total of 54 patients, recruited from October 2020 to February 2021, who were using topical ocular hypotensive medication. Subjects completed a personalized questionnaire which was developed to evaluate medication adherence and its barriers.RESULTS: Approximately 60% of our subject population were not completely adherent to topical treatment. Pearson's Chi-squared test demonstrated that there was no significant association between adherence and being followed up by a glaucoma specialist or not(χ2=1.2468, P=0.5361). Furthermore, 43% of participants expressed having problems with eyedrop instillation and Logistic regression analysis revealed that those subjects were significantly more likely to be low adherent to treatment(βî=3.168, P=0.0367).CONCLUSION: The questionnaire was effective to evaluate medication adherence to topical IOP lowering treatment and its barriers. The medication adherence rate found in this study was remarkably low, so several strategies must be put into practice to deal with the most common obstacles related to poor adherence.

Keywords

• medication adherence
• topical treatment
• eye drops
• barriers
• glaucoma