Assessment of glaucoma awareness, uptake, and satisfaction with a free, targeted glaucoma screening program Southwest in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Glaucoma is a global public eye health concern, being the number one cause of irreversible blindness.

Aim: It is commoner, has an earlier onset, and is more aggressive in people of African descent. Awareness creation and screening activities have been identified as key components of the glaucoma care pathway.

Subjects and methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study with analysis. The screening took place at the eye clinic, University College Hospital, Ibadan. Participants comprised all consenting adults aged 40 years and above who presented following a prescheduled telephone appointment during the 2021 World Glaucoma Week (WGW) activities. The main outcome variables were the awareness of glaucoma, and the uptake of and satisfaction with the free screening program. The associations between participants' prior awareness of glaucoma and their socio-demographic and clinical features were explored using the Chi-squared test. A P value of <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: A total of 94 (47%) participants presented for the screening out of the 200 people who scheduled an appointment through the telephone appointment booking system. Forty-nine (52.1%) were males, and the mean (SD) age of participants was 55 years (10.9) with a range of 40-80 years. Fifty-eight (61.7%) participants had heard of glaucoma before the 2021 WGW awareness programs and 75.9% (44) gained some new knowledge from the programs. Newly diagnosed glaucoma was 9.6% (n = 9) of which seven (77.8%) had advanced glaucoma (CDR ≥0.9) in at least one eye. One hundred percent of the participants reported that they would recommend the screening to others.

Conclusion: Targeted eye screening can help with the early detection of glaucoma. Patient satisfaction should be at the fore of eye health services to improve uptake.

Keywords: Awareness; early detection; glaucoma; satisfaction; screening.