Fear Of Blindness Research Articles

Fear of Blindness in the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study: Patterns and Correlates over Time

The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence of fear of blindness (FOB) and the factors associated with FOB during 5 years of follow-up in the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study. Randomized controlled clinical trial. A total of 607 newly diagnosed patients with open-angle glaucoma were recruited from 14 clinical centers in the United States. Patients were assigned randomly either to initial medical therapy or initial trabeculectomy. Study participants received clinical examinations and quality-of-life (QOL) evaluations at baseline and 6-month intervals. The QOL questionnaire was administered by trained telephone interviewers at a centralized interviewing center. The QOL questionnaire included an assessment of FOB, measures of vision-related functioning, and measures of general physical and psychosocial well being. Ordinal logistic regression analyses were used to assess clinical and QOL measures associated with FOB over time. After being told about the glaucoma diagnosis but before randomization, 34% of patients reported at least a moderate amount of FOB. This percent dropped to 11% at 5 years. In multivariable ordinal logistic regression models, younger age, being white, and having less education and a lower income were associated with increased FOB (all P<0.05). At the 36-month follow-up, visual field progression was associated significantly with increased FOB (P = 0.006); visual acuity loss, although related to increased FOB, did not achieve statistical significance (P = 0.327). Self-reported visual function measures explained more of the variation in FOB over time than did demographic, clinical, or physical or psychosocial measures. Initial treatment assignment (medicine or surgery) was not associated with FOB. The most significant correlate over time with FOB was the perceived impact on an individual's ability to perform visual tasks. More attention to reducing glaucoma patients' FOB at diagnosis and over time is warranted. Fear of blindness over time is related more to how much an individual is bothered by their inability to perform visual tasks than to their monocular visual acuity or visual field assessments.

PERCEPTIONS OF PATIENTS ABOUT CATARACT

To identify in adult patients suffering from cataract the perceptions regarding the disease and its surgical treatment. An exploratory survey was conducted among adult patients suffering from cataract and participating in a large-scale cataract management program at the University of São Paulo General Hospital in 2004. The interviews were conducted by research assistants previously trained to pose questions and record answers. The sample consisted of 170 men and women (43.5% and 56.5%, respectively), aged between 40 and 88 years. Of the 170 participants, 43.5% were from the State of São Paulo, 14.7% from the State of Bahia, 12.4% from the State of Minas Gerais, 5.9% from the State of Pernambuco, 1.8% from other countries, and the remaining 21.7% were from other Brazilian states. Of those who were actively working (n = 87), 43.7% had an occupational level corresponding to nonspecialized manual labor, 27.6% were in specialized manual labor jobs, 25.3% had routine nonmanual occupations, 1.1% supervised manual labor, and 2.3% had low-ranking supervision or inspection jobs over nonmanual occupations. Of those who were not actively working (n = 82), 53.6% were retired, 45.2% were housewives, and 1.2% were unemployed. Concerning conceptions about cataract, 79.0% referred to it as "a small skin fold that gradually covers the eye" and 32.4% mentioned, in addition, other conceptions. Concerning the cause, of the alternatives presented to them, 80% reported aging, 47.1% blamed "overusing the eyes in the workplace or at home", 7.1% believed they had cataract due to some kind of "spell." Of the associated answers, 94.1% referred to "blurred vision" in people suffering from cataract, 72.4% thought the person may become blind, and 66.5% believed that the patients suffering from cataract are depressed because they cannot see. Regarding surgery, 28.8% were afraid of undergoing surgery; of those, 16.3% cited with the fear of dying during surgery, 55.1% thought they might become blind, 40.8% believed the surgery would be painful, and 8.2% followed religious practices that do not permit surgery. Some misconceptions were identified, and the fear of blindness was the most mentioned reason for not seeking cataract surgery, which indicates the need for orientation.

Kindling and Ash: Radical Aestheticism in Keats and Shelley

1. of / With my unlidded I TAKE THE TITLE OF MY OPENING SECTION FROM KEATS'S SONG OF FOUR Fairies, and specifically from its rhapsody on flame. While spirits of air and water are left their own delights, Dusketha, spirit of earth, promises join Salamander, spirit of in congress, be bedded in flames (93): Sprite of fire! I follow thee [and] / at thy desire, / Touch of / With my unlidded (80, 84-86). (1) In an otherwise unremarkable poem, these remarkable lines on supreme of spirits also propose an allegory of reading that at first sight can only appear be an allegory of blindness: by promise recorded in these lines make eyes into organs of touch, Dusketha guarantees in process deprive them of sight. But something is gained by such self-blinding; for it is only by searing touch of eyes that this encounter with the of fire can be consummated. What, moreover, is pulse of fire other than its beat, its metrics? Thus, press bare unlidded fire's is read a reading which blinds on contact. Once this reading is bedded, it promises give desire a voice, become a speaking, a poetics of tongued flames. The poem does not pursue further ramifications of this conjunction. But since Keats often plays with in his poems, Dusketha's lines announce an incendiary poetics that I would like explore in their more detailed and adventurous forms. This entails turning from very of fire figures that we might read without same fear of blindness, figures that lend this lyric illusion of a history, figures that transform into a narrative of burning--namely, figures of kindling and ash, fire's origin and outcome, cause and consequence. To be bedded in flames is thus point from kindling of spirit of ashes of its result. To kindle means, of course, set on ignite. Figuratively, it can mean inflame, excite, animate. And, as is often case in Shelley's poetry, it can also take an intransitive form, as in to take fire, commence burning. As a noun, kindling means either act of causing burn, or material, easily lighted, that starts a fire. Ashes are earthly or mineral residue left when combustible material is thoroughly burned. Ashes are cinders, signs and traces of a burning. I am interested in ways in which ashes are textual residue, signs and traces of what I am calling a which is kindled at certain critical instances in poetry of both Shelley and Keats. This radical aestheticism is not reducible aestheticisms that we have come associate with or assign Pater, for a radical aestheticism is nothing that can be espoused. (2) But these days nothing is less likely be espoused than an aestheticism of any sort. In fact, if there is one thing in fractured field of what used be called literary studies that a conservative humanist, a critical Marxist, a rhetorically oriented deconstructive critic, and a practitioner of cultural studies can actually agree on, it is likely be a rejection of aestheticism. It is certainly ironic--perhaps even symptomatically so--that major critical currents of late twentieth-century literary analysis can find agreement in an aversion aestheticism, even as they often ascribe an aestheticism their various opponents. Critical approaches as divergent and even irreconcilable as structuralist poetics and hermenuetics, feminism and New Criticism, myth criticism and New Historicism could all be said share this aversion aestheticism. Conservative critics continue oppose it on basis of many of same moral and ethical objections raised against it at end of nineteenth century. …

Educational effects on radiological technology students of programs using a simulated aged person and hemiplegia patient

A practical training program that enabled students to experience an aged person and hemiplegia patient was developed as part of the "Practice Program in Medical Imaging Technology," to help the students understand how to support patients in the X-ray examination setting. Eighty-three third-year radiological technology students participated in the program. During the hour-long course, they experienced a simulated program that contained various checkpoints. The students pointed out the difficulty patients had in going up and down stairs (51.8%) and their feelings of uneasiness and fear of blindness (36.1%). As a result of this practical training program, the students increased their understanding of how to support patients slated for X-ray examinations. However, certain problems became clear, such as students' insufficient experience and lack of practical guidance in supporting aged patients and those with hemiplegia at the time of X-ray examinations. This information will helpful for improving similar training programs to be held in the future.