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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2019  |  Volume : 67  |  Issue : 10  |  Page : 1593-1598

Demographic and socioeconomic barriers and treatment seeking behaviors of patients with infectious keratitis requiring therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty


1 Department of Cornea and Refractive Services, Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
2 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
3 Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
4 Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
5 Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Correspondence Address:
Dr. N Venkatesh Prajna
Department of Cornea and Refractive Services, Aravind Eye Hospital, 1, Anna Nagar, Madurai - 625 020, Tamil Nadu
India
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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_1821_18

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Purpose: To understand demographic and socioeconomic barriers and treatment-seeking behaviors of patients with infectious keratitis requiring therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty (TPK) in a developing country. Methods: This prospective non-comparative questionnaire- based study included all patients presenting to Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai with infectious keratitis that eventuated to TPK between November 2015 and October 2016. A structured questionnaire was administered on post-operative day 3 to collect data on the demographic details, predisposing factors, prior treatment received, and treatment expenditures. Results: In total, 227 patients underwent TPK between November 2015 and October 2016 for infectious keratitis. The majority of patients were males (n = 132, 58.1%), illiterate (n = 129, 56.8%), and had a family monthly income of less than INR 6000 (n = 142, 62.5%). Most of the patients (n = 163, 71.8%) had prior treatment with an ophthalmologist before presenting to our hospital. The mean distance travelled to reach our centre was 269.2 ± 298.5 km. The mean duration of disease before the presentation was 20.3 ± 21.1 days. Corneal smear was positive for fungus in 163 (88.1%) and Aspergillus was the most commonly isolated fungi in 55 (41.3%) cultures. The mean total cost of treatment was INR 8752.87 ± 7615.39 per patient. There was a positive correlation between the duration of the disease (rho 0.19, P = 0.0034) and the costs of treatment (rho 0.2, P = 0.0024) with the distance travelled by the patient. Conclusion: Patients who travelled a farther distance had a delayed onset of presentation and spent significantly more than their respective counterparts.


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