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

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.