Awareness and knowledge regarding cataract and glaucoma in patients visiting outpatient department of a tertiary healthcare center

Abstract

To assess the awareness and knowledge regarding cataract and glaucoma in patients visiting OPD of a tertiary healthcare centre. A questionnaire based survey, involving 100 patients visiting OPD was conducted through random sampling. The questionnaire was structured to evaluate the level of awareness and knowledge about cataract and glaucoma and the effect of gender, education status, occupation, family history and diagnosis of the above diseases on awareness was studied. The source of awareness was also questioned. Of the 100 patients enrolled for the survey, responses from the participants were evaluated. A total of 73% and 39% patients were aware about cataract and glaucoma respectively, whereas a total of 67% and 27% were qualified as having knowledge about cataract and glaucoma respectively as per the set questionnaire and criteria. Education, occupation, diagnosis and family history are the variables significantly correlated with the awareness and knowledge of cataract and glaucoma. 85% of the patients having awareness about both cataract and glaucoma were well educated. Out of the patients having cataract awareness, 52.23% were also aware about glaucoma. Awareness and knowledge about glaucoma was low in comparison to cataract. The level of education has an impact on the level of awareness. The study findings stress the need to spread awareness about cataract and glaucoma in the community for its diagnosis and treatment and thus prevent blindness due to cataract and glaucoma.