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Do African American patients with glaucoma ask their eye providers the questions they have?

Eye volume 38, pages 279–283 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this study was to describe what questions patients checked on a glaucoma question prompt list and how often patients asked the same checked questions during medical visits.

Design

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the effectiveness of a pre-visit video/glaucoma question prompt list intervention to increase African American patient question-asking during medical visits.

Methods

Adult African American patients with glaucoma and a history of non-adherence to glaucoma medications were enrolled and randomized into intervention and usual care groups from three glaucoma practices. Visits were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded for the questions patients asked during their visits. Researchers collected the pre-visit question prompt lists from the intervention group and compared their checked questions to the questions patients asked during their visit.

Results

Ninety-three subjects were randomized to the question prompt list intervention group. Subjects checked an average of 6.77 questions on the prompt list. Of the subjects who checked at least one question, 54.8% asked their provider at least one of the questions they checked. The most common questions asked about glaucoma medications that they had checked were “What time(s) of day should I take my drops?” (50.0%, 9 out of 18) and "How many times a day do I use my glaucoma medicines?” (50.0%, 3 out of 6).

Conclusion

Although African American subjects with glaucoma have questions about glaucoma and their medications, few asked all their questions during visits. Future research should focus on how to improve question asking using a question prompt list.

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Data availability

De-identified individual data that supports the results will be shared following publication provided the investigator who proposes to use the data has approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), Independent Ethics Committee (IEC), or Research Ethics Board (REB), as applicable, and executes a data use/sharing agreement with UNC.

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Funding

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville MD (R01 HS 025370). The funding organization had no role in the design or conduct of this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Bethany Beznos, Robyn Sayner, Delesha M. Carpenter, Izabela E. Annis, Nacire Garcia & Betsy Sleath

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, UNC school of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Donald L. Budenz

  3. Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Kelly W. Muir

  4. Durham VA Medical Center, Health Services Research and Development, Durhaml, NC, USA

    Kelly W. Muir

  5. Precision Eye Care, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Maria S. Romero

  6. Health Professions, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH, USA

    Gail Tudor

  7. Ophthalmology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Alan L. Robin

  8. Ophthalmology and International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Alan L. Robin

  9. Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Betsy Sleath

Authors
  1. Bethany Beznos
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  4. Donald L. Budenz
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  9. Nacire Garcia
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  10. Alan L. Robin
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Contributions

Conception and design: BS, DMC, DLB, KWM, GT, NG, ALR. Analysis and interpretation: BB, RS, BS, IEA, GT. Data collection: BB, RS, BS, DMC, DLB, KWM, MSR, NG, ALR. Obtained funding: BS, DMC, DLB, KWM, GT, ALR. Overall responsibility: BB, RS, BS, DLB, KWM, ALR, GT.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bethany Beznos.

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Beznos, B., Sayner, R., Carpenter, D.M. et al. Do African American patients with glaucoma ask their eye providers the questions they have?. Eye 38, 279–283 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02674-x

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