Factors Associated With Health-Related Quality of Life Among Glaucoma Patients Receiving Care at The Emmanuel Eye Medical Center in Accra

ABSTRACT

Background: Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness characterized by an increased intraocular pressure and damage to the optic nerve. Clinicians often focus on optic neuropathy and nerve layer analysis as measures of success or failure of therapy, yet this is only an aspect of the impact felt by the patient. Other medical, psychological and sociodemographic constraints can influence their health-related quality of life. In Ghana, patients are faced with a myriad of challenges which tend to compound the burden of the disease on them. Also, research and literature on Healthrelated quality of life in Ghana is currently limited. Outcomes from this study can reveal if the topical treatment given patients is commensurate with the needs of patients. These interventions can enable caregivers, policy makers and donor agencies meet the needs of patients. Objectives: The main objective was to examine the medical, psychological and sociodemographic factors that determine health related quality of life among Glaucoma patients attending the Emmanuel Eye Medical Center. Method: Through a cross-sectional study design, Glaucoma patients receiving care at the Emmanuel Eye Medical Center were sampled randomly over a three-week period. They were asked to complete a sectional questionnaire consisting of the World Health Organization Quality of Life- short version, and other questions. Collected data were entered into Microsoft Excel 2013TM and analyzed with Stata version 15. The means, standard deviations, domain-specific associations determined using multivariate regression and overall health-related quality of life associations from logistic regression analyses were reported. Results: Majority of the patients were elderly, females, married or widowed, Christians, currently not working, had little or no education, received a salary/ monthly income of less than GHs 1000, with IOP levels 22-40mmHg. Of the health-related quality of life scores reported, v majority of the patients had high/ good health-related quality of life scores with mean reported scores: Physical (58.99 ± 10.19); Psychological (52.76 ± 9.45); Social (59.28 ± 12.52); Environment (57.71 ± 10.31); and Overall health-related quality of life (59.09 ± 12.60). Sex, Religion, Marital status, Income, Intraocular pressure levels, Side effects, Years since diagnosis, Anxiety and Depression were factors that influenced domain-specific scores, whiles Intraocular pressure levels influenced the overall health-related quality of life of patients. Conclusion: The study elaborates the relevance of actions to improve the health of Glaucoma patients. From the findings of this study, the overall health-related quality of life distribution showed majority (66.85%) of patients had high/ good scores, with a lesser percentage reporting low/ poor scores. Also, the sociodemographic factors (Sex, Income, Marital status) were to a large extent positively associated with patients’ health-related quality of life, whiles the association of medical factors (Side effects, Years of diagnosis, Initial IOP levels) was negative. Similarly, the psychological factors (Anxiety, Depression) influenced patients’ health-related quality of life negatively. Thus, the health-related quality of life of glaucoma patients receiving care at the Emmanuel Eye Medical Center differed in direction of association, based on the kind of factor related to it.