Does an Eye Drop Guide improve medication compliance in patients with glaucoma?
An Eye Drop Guide (EDG) designed to help with eye drop self-administration by improving aim and preventing bottle tips from contaminating the periocular tissue, should be prescribed selectively to patients who have 1 medication and administered their eye drops in a standing or sitting position, according to a study.
In this study, 57 patients with glaucoma were interviewed 4-6 months after completing the study “The effect of ‘eye drop guide’ on the success rate of eye drop self-installation in glaucoma patients.” Patients’ installation techniques, routine installation, or EDG use, were chosen independently. Patients were asked questions about the frequency of EDG use and provided ratings for aiming aids, contamination prevention, reduction of drop waste, and ease of use.
Approximately 19% of participants reported using the EDG every day whereas nearly 46% reported never using the guide. Patients who never used the guide had significantly lower scores in all aspects (P < 0.005).
Administering in supine position and use of >1 eye drop were the factors associated with the non-use of the EDG, according to a multivariate analysis.
The long-term compliance of those who had positive opinions of the EDG is still being investigated.
Reference
Sakiyalak D, Kobwanthanakun S. Patients’ experience of using eye drop guide device to aid self-administration of glaucoma medications. Clin Ophthalmol. 2020; 14:3781-3788. DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/OPTH.S271673
