Patient awareness study of the cataract patient in Jiangyan, Jiangsu / 眼科

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the cataract patients' awareness on the cataract diseases, treatment and major obstacles for patients to seek eye care. Design Prospective cross-sectional study. Participants All 251 patients in Jiangyan county were screened by the group of eye diseases selection in 6 months for cataract treatment performed by prevention blind surgery group. Methods Patients accepted surveys before operation. The patient's awareness questionnaire was developed in Aravind Eye Hospital, India. Main outcome measures Awareness of eye disease, awareness of treatment, obstacles of therapy and false treatment. Results 89.6% of patients were aware of the occurrence of eye disease for more than 1 year. However, it was only 0.12% of patients when they realized that their eye diseases could be treated more than 1 year,the time less than 6 months was 31.9%,and the time less than 1 month was 65.7%. The major obstacles for seeking eye care were still able to see a little, economic reason, no demand for operation, short of belief for the operation, etc. Conclusions It's high necessary and imperative to educate patient the knowledge of eye health and care. Developing economy is the radical measure in a long run to improve the cataract surgical rate (CSR) in our country. Low price service and high quality surgery is the key of improving CSR at present.