• Users Online: 45824
  • Home
  • Print this page
  • Email this page
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2009  |  Volume : 57  |  Issue : 5  |  Page : 355-360

Determinants of glaucoma awareness and knowledge in urban Chennai


Glaucoma Project, Vision Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, India

Correspondence Address:
Ronnie George
Glaucoma Services, Medical Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, 18, College Road, Chennai- 600 006
India
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/0301-4738.55073

Rights and Permissions

Aim: To assess the awareness and knowledge levels about glaucoma and its determinants in an urban population of Chennai in south India. Materials and Methods: Chennai glaucoma study (CGS) was a population based prevalence study to estimate the prevalence of glaucoma in a rural and urban south Indian population. A total of 3850 subjects aged 40 years or above participated in the urban arm of CGS. A systematic random sample of 1926 (50.0%) subjects completed a questionnaire that assesses their awareness and knowledge level of glaucoma. Respondents "having heard of glaucoma" even before they were contacted/recruited for the study were defined as "aware" and respondents having some understanding of the eye disease were defined as "knowledgeable". Results: Overall 13.5% were aware of glaucoma, the age-gender adjusted rate for awareness was 13.3% (95% CI: 11.57 to 15.03). Two clinicians graded knowledge on glaucoma, based on the subject's knowledge of risk factors, definitions and treatment aspects of glaucoma. Overall 8.7% had some knowledge about glaucoma. Among those who had knowledge 0.5% had good knowledge about glaucoma, 4% had fair knowledge and 4.2% had poor knowledge. We observed a very good agreement between the clinicians in grading knowledge (k =0.92). Determinants of glaucoma awareness and knowledge were higher levels of education, females, age, religion and family history of glaucoma. Conclusion: Awareness and knowledge about glaucoma was very low among the urban population of Chennai. We have found that younger subjects and men were less aware of glaucoma. Subjects with lower levels of education were less aware and knew less about glaucoma than their counterparts. The study findings stress the need for health education for effective prevention of blindness due to glaucoma.


[FULL TEXT] [PDF]*
Print this article     Email this article
 Next article
 Previous article
 Table of Contents

 Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
 Related articles
 Citation Manager
 Access Statistics
 Reader Comments
 Email Alert *
 Add to My List *
 * Requires registration (Free)
 

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed7612    
    Printed141    
    Emailed3    
    PDF Downloaded1016    
    Comments [Add]    
    Cited by others 66    

Recommend this journal