Título

GLAUCOMA TREATMENT ADHERENCE IN BRAZIL

Objetivo

To investigate glaucoma treatment adherence in a group of glaucoma patients using the “Glaucoma Treatment Compliance Assessment Tool” (GTCAT) , which was previously translated to Brazilian Portuguese.

Método

Patients with glaucoma from the Hospital Oftalmológico de Brasília were evaluated with the GTCAT to investigate adherence to treatment. Logistic regression was performed to correlate adherence to variables such as age, gender, race, income, education and severity of glaucoma (according to Anderson criteria). All patients underwent complete ophthalmological exam and standard automated perimetry.

Resultado

We included 103 glaucoma patients. Mean age was 66,32 years, 54,5% were women and 81% were Caucasian. The majority of patients (53%) completed high school and 8,6% of the sample had a college degree. Only 48% of the sample had family income below R$3.152,00. Mean deviation (MD) of the better and worse eye were -4.37 and 10.83dB, respectively. The GTCAT predictive validity is adequate based on a staged multivariate model building, in which several Health Belief Model questions and constructs were associated with objective measurements of adherence. Thus, we found in our sample, 56,31% patients with some level of adherence issues to glaucoma treatment. Logistic regression showed statistical correlation only with the severity of the glaucoma, with 43,4% and 51,06% of patients considered adherent to treatment in initial and moderate stage of the disease, respectively. However, only 27,27% were considered adherent in the advanced stages of the disease.

Conclusão

To our knowledge this is the first study to apply a questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model to evaluate adherence in glaucoma patients in Brazil. We have found a high proportion of patients with adherence issues in a Brazilian population. In addition to that, we found a statistical significant correlation between poor adherence and severity of glaucoma.