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Editors Selection IGR 16-4
Awareness of Glaucoma
Comment by David Friedman on:
22444 Can a public health intervention improve awareness and health-seeking behaviour for glaucoma?, Baker H; Murdoch IE, British Journal of Ophthalmology, 2008; 92: 1671-1675
Baker and Murdoch (1312) have demonstrated that a media campaign can increase awareness of glaucoma among a population of Indian immigrants living in a suburb of London, England. The researchers interviewed 300 subjects before and 307 subjects after a media campaign that used television, newspaper and radio advertisements as well as posted messages about glaucoma at houses of worship. Twenty-two percent of subjects were aware of glaucoma before the communication effort compared to 53% afterwards. Most people learned about glaucoma from radio advertisements and interviews with physicians about glaucoma. While this finding is impressive, the authors note that health seeking behaviors did not change after the campaign. No increase in evaluations at local optometric practices was seen following the intervention, and knowledge of glaucoma (as opposed to having heard of glaucoma) did not improve. An important limitation of the study is the fact that it targeted a subset of the English population, limiting its generalizability to other subsets of English society or elsewhere.
A media campaign can increase awareness of glaucomaThe authors make helpful, practical suggestions for health campaigns. They emphasize the need to have the trust and support of local community groups since messages need to be crafted thoughtfully to avoid misinterpretation. Partnering with local leaders is a key to success. They also emphasize that in this population, radio, a relatively cheap form of advertising, appeared to be the most successful. In summary, the authors found that awareness of glaucoma was improved, but knowledge about the disease and health seeking behavior were not after a multi-pronged awareness campaign.
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