May 25, 2006
Betsy Sleath, PhD, associate professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, has been awarded a travel grant from the UNC Partnership in Global Health to support her proposal “Improving Treatment Adherence of Glaucoma Patients in Southern India.”
In 2004 Sleath and Alan Robin, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University, developed a a survey to examine problems that patients were having using glaucoma medications. Sleath and Robin recently modified the survey for use at the Aravind Eye Care System in southern rural India. The Aravind Eye Care System offers essentially free eye care to individuals at five eye clinics and hospitals in southern India. Despite the free care, it is estimated that 90 percent of individuals diagnosed with glaucoma never come back for follow-up care.
For the project, research staff will survey more than 300 glaucoma patients in India. Sleath; Robin; Ramasamy Krishnadas, MD, Aravind’s chief medical officer, and other colleagues will educate health advisers about glaucoma treatment, barriers to glaucoma treatment, and how individuals can receive eye care in southern India. Patients that do not come back to Aravind for follow-up treatment will be assigned a health adviser. The goal of the project is to improve the follow-up visits and medication adherence of glaucoma patients.
“I think the project is important because glaucoma is a disease without symptoms that is one of the leading causes of blindness,” Sleath says. “People may not take their glaucoma medicines because they are experiencing no symptoms, yet their condition can worsen and this can lead to blindness. I think it is exciting to try to educate individuals more about the disease and its treatment both here in the United States and in India.”
The findings from this project will be used to write a grant to the National Eye Institute to do a larger study in India and to develop a similar program in the United States for African Americans, who are disproportionately impacted by glaucoma.
The UNC Partnership in Global Health, a program of the Office of Global Health in the School of Public Health, is designed to foster the development of interdisciplinary research projects and partnerships in global health.
Latest News
Developing new ways to treat heart attacks without surgery
School maintains No. 7 spot in QS World University Rankings
