Abstract:
Awareness of glaucoma is low in spite of being the second leading cause of
preventable blindness in the world. Aim: To study the awareness and knowledge levels
of glaucoma in a tertiary eye care hospital in a tier‐2 city. Materials and Methods: This
is a hospital‐based crosssectional study. A total of 704 patients attending ophthalmology
outpatient department of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College of Medical
Sciences and Hospital (SDM) Dharwad, aged 40 years and above were administered a
questionnaire after a written informed consent to assess their awareness and knowledge
levels of glaucoma. Subjects “having heard of glaucoma” even before they were recruited
for the study were defined as “aware”, and subjects having some understanding of the eye
disease were defined as “knowledgeable”. Results: Out of 704 subjects recruited for the
study, only 34 (4.8%) subjects were aware of glaucoma and 22 (3.1%) had some knowledge of
glaucoma. Determinants of glaucoma awareness were higher levels of education, diabetes,
or glaucoma and family history of glaucoma. Conclusion: Awareness and knowledge of
glaucoma was very low among the subjects. The findings of the study stress the need for
health awareness for effective prevention of blindness due to glaucoma
