Relationship between electronically measured medication adherence and vision-related quality of life in a cohort of patients with open-angle glaucoma.

Abstract

Objective

To investigate whether electronically measured medication adherence is associated with vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) in patients with open-angle glaucoma.

Methods and analysis

This is a 3-year prospective cohort study of 79 subjects with open-angle glaucoma at a Veterans Affairs medical centre. Participants returned a medication event monitoring system (MEMS) for their glaucoma eye-drops and had at least two visits with glaucoma during the study period. Those taking less than 80% of prescribed glaucoma medication doses were considered to be non-adherent. Subjects were interviewed using the National Eye Institute's Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (VFQ-25) at baseline and after 3 years.

Results

Thirty per cent (n=24/79) of participants took less than 80% of prescribed doses of their glaucoma medications at baseline. Patients who did not adhere to their medications at baseline had lower mean composite VFQ-25 scores at baseline (70.66±20.50 vs 75.91±19.12, standardised mean difference=0.27) and after 3 years (71.68±21.93 vs 76.25±21.67, standardised mean difference=0.21). Visual acuity (P=0.03), but not visual field severity (P=0.13) or medication adherence (P=0.30), was significantly associated with composite VFQ-25 score in an adjusted model.

Conclusions

Subjects who were non-adherent to their glaucoma medications at baseline as assessed by a MEMS device reported lower VRQoL than adherent subjects at baseline and after 3 years. However, visual acuity was significantly associated with VRQoL. Future studies should assess whether improved adherence to eye-drops impacts VRQoL in patients with glaucoma.

Department

Description

Provenance

Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1136/bmjophth-2017-000114

Publication Info

Thompson, Atalie C, Sandra Woolson, Maren K Olsen, Susanne Danus, Hayden B Bosworth and Kelly W Muir (2018). Relationship between electronically measured medication adherence and vision-related quality of life in a cohort of patients with open-angle glaucoma. BMJ open ophthalmology, 3(1). p. e000114. 10.1136/bmjophth-2017-000114 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/29891.

This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.

Scholars@Duke

Olsen

Maren Karine Olsen

Professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics

Health services research, longitudinal data methods, missing data methods

Bosworth

Hayden Barry Bosworth

Professor in Population Health Sciences

Dr. Bosworth is a health services researcher and Deputy Director of the Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation (ADAPT)  at the Durham VA Medical Center. He is also Vice Chair of Education and Professor of Population Health Sciences. He is also a Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Nursing at Duke University Medical Center and Adjunct Professor in Health Policy and Administration at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests comprise three overarching areas of research: 1) clinical research that provides knowledge for improving patients’ treatment adherence and self-management in chronic care; 2) translation research to improve access to quality of care; and 3) eliminate health care disparities. 

Dr. Bosworth is the recipient of an American Heart Association established investigator award, the 2013 VA Undersecretary Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research (The annual award is the highest honor for VA health services researchers), and a VA Senior Career Scientist Award. In terms of self-management, Dr. Bosworth has expertise developing interventions to improve health behaviors related to hypertension, coronary artery disease, and depression, and has been developing and implementing tailored patient interventions to reduce the burden of other chronic diseases. These trials focus on motivating individuals to initiate health behaviors and sustaining them long term and use members of the healthcare team, particularly pharmacists and nurses. He has been the Principal Investigator of over 30 trials resulting in over 400 peer reviewed publications and four books. This work has been or is being implemented in multiple arenas including Medicaid of North Carolina, private payers, The United Kingdom National Health System Direct, Kaiser Health care system, and the Veterans Affairs.

Areas of Expertise: Health Behavior, Health Services Research, Implementation Science, Health Measurement, and Health Policy

Muir

Kelly Walton Muir

Associate Professor of Ophthalmology

Kelly W. Muir, MD, specializes in the medical and surgical management of glaucoma, cataracts and general eye disease. Her research focuses on optimizing the quality of care that glaucoma patients receive by improving patient education materials, studying patient and physician communication, and developing a novel eye drop bottle that makes it easier for patients to administer their glaucoma drops.  Her research has been funded by the American Glaucoma Society, the National Eye Institute, and the Veterans Health Administration. Dr. Muir also teaches medical students, residents, and fellows about glaucoma and other ophthalmologic conditions. Dr. Muir is fellowship-trained, board-certified and a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Glaucoma Society.


Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.