Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Dec 20, 2025; 15(4): 105287
Published online Dec 20, 2025. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v15.i4.105287
Knowledge, attitudes, and practice patterns regarding glaucoma among medical students and healthcare professionals in Eastern India
Bhagabat Nayak, Koyel Chakraborty, Shanmugasundaram Palanisamy, Ravikumar Subraya Rathod, Sucheta Parija, Bijnya Birajita Panda
Bhagabat Nayak, Koyel Chakraborty, Shanmugasundaram Palanisamy, Sucheta Parija, Bijnya Birajita Panda, Department of Ophthalmology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneshwar 751019, Odisha, India
Ravikumar Subraya Rathod, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh 160030, India
Co-first authors: Bhagabat Nayak and Koyel Chakraborty.
Co-corresponding authors: Shanmugasundaram Palanisamy and Bijnya Birajita Panda.
Author contributions: Bhagabat N designed and conducted the study; Koyel C and Shanmugasundaram P wrote the manuscript; Rathod RS contributed to the statistical analyses; Bhagabat N, Sucheta P, and Bijnya P provided clinical inputs and critically analyzed the manuscript; Bhagabat N supervised the study; Palanisamy S acquired the clinical data, prepared the first draft of the manuscript, prepared a datasheet, searched the literature, and was responsible for the preparation of figures; Panda BB critically analyzed the initial manuscript and provided crucial inputs that were essential for preparing the final version of the manuscript. The collaboration between Panda BB and Palanisamy S helped in representing the figures correctly, formulating the discussion after proper literature review, and keeping up with the manuscript guidelines, which were essential for the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent before enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: All the responses from the participants of the study have been recorded in Excel table format and can be provided upon request to the corresponding author at bigyan_panda@yahoo.co.in/shansvitheesh@gmail.com.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bijnya Birajita Panda, Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Sijua, Bhubaneswar 751019, Odisha, India. bigyan_panda@yahoo.co.in
Received: January 18, 2025
Revised: April 2, 2025
Accepted: April 15, 2025
Published online: December 20, 2025
Processing time: 199 Days and 19.2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, with 60.5 million affected individuals, of whom 11 million are from India. Due to its asymptomatic nature, the disease largely remains underdiagnosed or diagnosed in advanced stages, where little can be done to salvage functional vision. The literature suggests that a lack of knowledge is one of the reasons for its grave consequences. Assessment of awareness is the first step in planning management. Several studies have been conducted in the Indian community, but data from healthcare providers, who play a significant role in educating the masses directly or indirectly, are limited.

AIM

To identify awareness, knowledge, and attitudes about glaucoma among healthcare workers in a tertiary center in India.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care institute in Eastern India. Data were collected from 423 participants by systematic stratified sampling after Institutional Ethics Committee approval via a pretested, self-designed, semistructured, validated questionnaire. Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software v22.0. Continuous variables are expressed as the means ± SD for parametric values and medians with interquartile ranges for nonparametric values. The associations between the variables were studied via multivariate linear and logistic regression. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

Most respondents were 20–30 years old (n = 345, 81.6%). The knowledge regarding glaucoma was good, and almost 56.3% of the participants gained knowledge from their medical training. The majority were aware that it has a familial predisposition and is secondary to high intraocular pressure, leading to irreversible peripheral vision loss. Only 42% knew about the life-long requirements of treatment. The resident group scored highest on knowledge- and attitude-based questions, whereas the faculty group scored highest on practice-based questions. Although 62% of the nursing staff had good attitude scores, their knowledge and practice scores were lower. The occupation group response difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05) for all the knowledge-based questions.

CONCLUSION

Although the majority of healthcare providers are aware of glaucoma, there is a dearth of knowledge about treatment modalities. Education via seminars and media can improve their knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Keywords: Glaucoma awareness; Knowledge; Healthcare providers; Treatment modalities

Core Tip: Our study aims to understand the current knowledge, attitude, practice, and awareness level among healthcare professionals decades after the worldwide awareness program on glaucoma, such as the World Glaucoma Week celebration. We are surprised that healthcare workers still lack awareness of glaucoma. Although the attitude shown was enthusiastic, many professionals require repeated seminars and awareness programs to enhance healthcare professionals' knowledge and practice patterns to increase their awareness in the community.