What Can You Do to Improve Compliance with Eyeglasses or Spectacle Use?

Discussion Uncorrected refractive errors (URE) are a major cause of visual impairment and blindness globally. It is estimated that more than 12.8 million children ages 5-15 years have URE. URE can cause astigmatism, anisometropia, amblyogenic hyperopia and myopia. It can also be a factor in injuries, behavioral problems and academic and social impairments. Spectacles (or eyeglasses or eye wear) are a low-cost, non-invasive, simple to use treatment for URE. Spectacle use has many benefits but depend on end-user use. Learning Point Non-compliance with spectacle use is estimated to be 40.1% overall with a range of 9.8-78.6% in a meta-analysis. Non-compliance is associated with older children, living in a rural area and in some studies females more than males. Compliance remains low even if the spectacles are provided at no-cost. Custom-made or ready-made spectacles do not change compliance overall. Compliance is improved if there is a higher RE (i.e. patient has worse vision therefore child experiences improvement using the spectacles). Reasons for non-compliance includes: Breakage/loss/forgetfulness – 23.3% Broken or lost spectacles Forgetfulness Personal factors – 25.8% Parental and children perceptions Peer pressure Patient self-esteem Injury concerns Dislike of the spectacles, unattractiveness/poor appearance Vision problems/headache – 5.5% Uncomfortable spectacles Unclear vision Cost Non-vision specialists should be aware that patients with low...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news