Impact of patient-held record on knowledge at 1-year follow-up for glaucoma patients: single-center randomized...

To assess whether provision of a personalized patient-held eye health summary (glaucoma personal record) improves patients' knowledge of glaucoma at 1-year follow-up. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has recommended such an approach to ascertain if this may ultimately help slow disease progression.

Recruited patients, newly diagnosed with glaucoma conditions, were randomly allocated to receive standard clinical care or an additional glaucoma personal record, detailing the current state of each individual's eye condition. Mann-Whitney U test was applied for comparison of knowledge scores between groups at 1-year follow-up, using a validated questionnaire. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to detect any factors significantly associated with a difference in glaucoma knowledge.

A total of 122 patients were recruited; 57 controls and 44 intervention patients were tested for their glaucoma knowledge, equating to 83% retention rate. Out of a maximum available 100% converted score, the median scores were 58% and 53% for the control and intervention arm, respectively (p = 0.85). Regression analysis showed that age (p = 0.015) had a negative association and level of education (p = 0.002) had a positive association with glaucoma knowledge.

The glaucoma personal record does not impact on a patient's knowledge of glaucoma in either a positive or negative way. Other approaches to improve health literacy among glaucoma patients, particularly for patients who are elderly or have a limited educational background, must be considered to improve patients' awareness and knowledge of their own condition.

International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Registry: ISRCTN41306818.