A patient’s perception of how their glaucoma is managed influences medication adherence and outcome measures. Australian researchers recently found that a patient-reported outcome and experience measure (POEM) demonstrates the potential to document the concerns of a practice’s glaucoma cohort and enhance the quality of glaucoma care.

This prospective, consecutive study evaluated 202 patients using a POEM modified for an Australian private practice setting. The measure consists of eight items related to a patient’s understanding of their diagnosis and management and treatment plans, perception of their disease and whether they feel it is getting worse and interfering with their daily lives and concerns regarding vision loss and glaucoma team care.

The team notes that the patients’ overall perception of their treatment and outcome was favorable. They learned that younger patients felt their glaucoma interfered more with their daily lives and were more worried about losing their vision from the disease. They add that the greater the number of medications, the more these patients felt their glaucoma was getting worse and interfering with their daily lives.

The study authors also discovered that female patients more strongly agreed that they understood their glaucoma diagnosis and management plan. They note that patients with a severe visual defect in their worse eye also reported a greater perceived understanding of their glaucoma diagnosis and management plan. They add that these patients felt their glaucoma was interfering with their daily lives and they had a greater chance of losing vision from glaucoma than their fellow glaucoma patients with less severe or no visual field deficits in their worse eye.