Effectiveness of using self-care promotion program for glaucoma patients at Nong Bua Lamphu Hospital.

Abstract

     The quasi-experimental research with a single group pre-post measurement aimed to study the effectiveness of the self-care promotion program for glaucoma patients at Nong Bua Lamphu Hospital on self-care behavior before and after using the program. The sample group consisted of 30 glaucoma patients who received services at the outpatient department of ophthalmology nursing, Nong Bua Lamphu Hospital, purposively selected according to the specified criteria. The study was conducted from January to April 2025. The research instruments included a questionnaire on knowledge of glaucoma, perception of severity of glaucoma, perception of risk of high intraocular pressure, behavior to control intraocular pressure, and intraocular pressure drop behavior and level. The data were analyzed using paired t-tested statistics.

     The results of the study found that Most of the volunteers were male (56.67%), with a mean age of 68.53 years, SD ± 9.23, 46.67% had primary education, 40% were farmers, 86.67% used the health insurance scheme, 30% had diabetes, 70% used Xalatan, 90% had caregivers, and 76.67% had follow-up appointments on average 4 times per year. After using the program, it was found that the average intraocular pressure of the patients on both the right and left sides was significantly reduced (p<0.01). The knowledge scores of glaucoma and the intraocular pressure control behavior scores of the patients were significantly increased (p<0.001). However, there were no statistically significant improvements in the clinical outcomes of Visual Acuity and Optical Coherence Tomography (p>0.05).