A prospective study to evaluate the reasons for hospital visit among patients with primary glaucoma

Glaucoma is chronic,progressive asymptomatic optic neuropathy due to a variety of ocular conditionswhich lead to damage of the optic nerve with permanent visual loss and eventualblindness. Intraocular pressure is the only modifiable risk factor. It isusually unnoticed until advanced visual field loss is present or central fieldis damaged. To date, there is no neuro-regenerative therapy and visual loss ispermanent. Therefore early diagnosis is imperative.

Various population studieshave shown that about one half of all persons with manifest glaucoma in a givenpopulation are unaware that they have the disease. Normal tensionglaucoma was found to be four times as common in patients identified throughpopulation screening compared to self-selected patients suggesting that specialefforts like glaucoma screening are necessary to detect manifest glaucoma at anearlier stage than it currently is.

Hypothesis

The evaluation anddiscovery of the reasons for seeking eye care for glaucoma are important asthis might help us better understand the human factors and develop new andbetter strategies to capture a larger section of the population.