Individualised patient care as an adjunct to standard care for promoting adherence to ocular hypotensive therapy: an exploratory randomised controlled trial

Purpose To evaluate the impact of individualised patient care, as an adjunct to standard care, on adherence to ocular hypotensive therapy. Methods A two-arm, single-masked exploratory randomised controlled trial recruited patients newly prescribed ocular hypotensive therapy. The intervention involved an individual assessment of health-care needs and beliefs and a 1-year follow-up period according to need. The primary outcome was refill adherence, measured by collating prescription and dispensing data for 12 months. Secondary outcomes included self-reported adherence, glaucoma knowledge, beliefs about illness and medicines, quality of care, intraocular pressure (IOP) fluctuation, and changes in clinical management assessed at 12 months. The strength of the intervention was measured following withdrawal by reviewing clinical outcomes for a further 12 months. Results In all, 127 patients were recruited (91% response rate). Intervention-arm patients collected significantly more prescriptions than control-arm patients. Self-report adherence was significantly better in the intervention-arm for patients who forgot drops and those who intentionally missed drops. The intervention group demonstrated significantly more glaucoma knowledge, expressed a significantly stronger belief in the necessity of eye drops and believed that they had more personal control over managing their condition. Control-arm patients had more IOP fluctuation and changes in clinical management. However, this finding only reached significance at 24 months. Conclusion Modelling patient care according to health-care needs and beliefs about illness and medicines can have a significant impact on improving adherence to therapy for this patient group, with the potential benefit of improving clinical outcomes. Eye (2012) 26, 407-417; doi: 10.1038/eye.2011.269; published online 18 November 2011