Clinical Ophthalmology (Jun 2023)
The Feasibility of an Educational Cartoon Video for Improving Adherence with Amblyopia Treatment in Children
Abstract
Saeed Aljohani,1 Jingyun Wang,2 Mitchell Scheiman,3 Qing-Qing Tan,4 Hongxin Xu,5 Nawaf Almutairi,1 Saleh Alshammeri1 1Department of Optometry, College of Applied Medical Science, Qassim University, Buraydah, Qassim, Saudi Arabia; 2SUNY College of Optometry, New York, NY, USA; 3Salus University, Wyncote, PA, USA; 4Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 5Panorama Windows Ltd, New York, NY, USACorrespondence: Saeed Aljohani, Email [email protected]: Previous studies have shown that it is necessary to evaluate adherence during the treatment process, using educational intervention methods which have been shown to improve adherence with patching treatment. A previous study reported that an educational cartoon had significantly improved adherence with patching. However, this black-white cartoon is not commercially available.Objective: This study investigates the feasibility of a 4-minute educational cartoon video in improving adherence with patching therapy for amblyopic children.Methods: Children (3 to 10 years old) with unilateral amblyopia who were prescribed 2 hours or 6 hours of patching per day were enrolled. Objective adherence to the treatment was tracked using a microsensor. Children returned after 4 weeks ± 2 days to measure adherence. Participants with adherence ≤ 50% were eligible to watch the educational cartoon video. They continued with the previously prescribed treatment (2 hours or 6 hours patching) for an additional week to evaluate the follow-up adherence.Results: A total of 27 participants were enrolled. The mean age (SD) was 6.6 (1.5) years. Twenty-two participants (12 in the 2 hours patching group and 10 in the 6 hours patching group) had adherence ≤ 50% and watched our cartoon video. The cartoon video improved mean adherence (SD) from 29.6% (11.9%) to 56.8% (12.1%) in all 22 participants from both regimens (paired 2-tailed t-test, t= − 11, P < 0.000).Conclusion: The Educational cartoon video is feasible for use in a clinical setting. These data showed a trend of improvement in adherence with both patching regimens in children after watching the educational cartoon video.Keywords: educational cartoon, amblyopia, adherence, patching
