Glaucoma Studies

Sleath has recently begun to work with partners in India and Greece on research about glaucoma patients. In the collaboration in India, she is working with the Aravind Eye Hospitals on a study that examines patients’ adherence to medication.

The study is surveying two hundred and fifty glaucoma patients at an Aravind clinic to examine how adherence and quality of life are impacted by various factors, such as depression, social support, whether the physicians involve the patients when deciding their treatment, what patients expect from eye care, and whether the patients are applying eye drops correctly.

“I was in a part of India where there was not a lot of English spoken except at the hospital,” Sleath says. “The language was called Tamil, which I didn’t know a word of, and a lot of the patients didn’t know English. I had a lot of fun. I was in the waiting area of the glaucoma clinic and working with the study coordinator. The patients were wonderful. I learned how important nonverbal communication is. It really felt like true cross-cultural research.”

Sleath is also helping investigators in Greece with a randomized control trial involving new glaucoma patients and patients whose condition has not improved from treatment. The study educates the patients about their glaucoma medications and examines whether that will lead to better outcomes. One group is receiving education intervention about glaucoma and compliance, while the control group is receiving an intervention about cataracts and macular degeneration. Sleath’s role is to help develop the survey instruments and help decide what should be in the educational intervention. She also helped develop easy-to-understand reminder leaflets for patients.

In addition to the international collaborations, Sleath also has done two studies with Alan Robin, an ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins University, and David Covert, a scientist at Alcon Research Ltd., on glaucoma compliance in the United States. She is currently trying to get federal funding for another study.

“I’m linking my two worlds,” she says. “I’m now trying to get funding to look at ophthalmologist-patient communication about glaucoma and eye-drop use and how that impacts people’s interocular pressure and how that influences adherence.”

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