Assessment of Office-Based Practice Patterns on Protective Eyewear Counseling for Patients With Monocular Vision

Abstract

To investigate the practice patterns of office-based counseling on the importance of protective eyeglasses in monocular patients and to offer our counseling recommendations. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected in the form of surveys. Surveys were administered at an oculoplastic ophthalmology clinic in Michigan. Inclusion criteria included adults with vision of 20/400 or worse in only 1 eye. Survey questions were focused on whether patients with monocular vision recall being previously counseled by their primary ophthalmologist about wearing eye protection. A total of 60 surveys were completed. The average age was 62.2 years old (range: 23-90 years old). Of the completed surveys, 56.7% (34/60) did not recall receiving education about wearing protective glasses over their better seeing eye, while 35.0% (21/60) recalled having received education from their referring ophthalmologist about eye protection, and 8.3% (5/60) were uncertain about receiving eye protection counseling. Twenty (33.3%) patients reported the reason for decreased vision. Of those, 35% (7/20) of patients reported monocular vision resulting from trauma, while 65% (13/20) reported vision loss due to other reasons. There was no significant difference in recall of receiving counseling about the importance of eye protection between the 2 groups (p = 0.74). The results of this study highlight the current counseling short-comings, as more than half (56.7%) of patients surveyed did not recall being counseled on the importance of protecting their better seeing-eye, or ways of doing so. More counseling on protective eyewear needs to be incorporated into the preferred practice pattern for care of patients with monocular visual impairment because these patients are vulnerable to the devastating consequences of complete blindness as a result of an injury to their functioning eye.