Perceived Barriers to Care and Attitudes about Vision and Eye Care: Focus Groups with Older African Americans and Eye Care Providers

Abstract

These results provide some guidance for the design of interventions to increase the use of routine eye care in this population. At a societal level, there is a need for affordable and accessible transportation services for older African Americans seeking eye care. For ophthalmologists, optometrists, and their staffs, there is a need for continuing education that imparts culturally sensitive and age-appropriate communication and trust-building skills for interactions with this population. In addition to reinforcing the generally positive attitudes of older African Americans toward the importance of eye care, community-based educational programs should be focused on strategies for overcoming the common barriers to care.

Improving eye care follow-up adherence in diabetic patients with ocular abnormalities: the effectiveness of patient contracts in a free, pharmacy-based eye screening

“…Frequently cited barriers to care include transportation, insurance, cost and lack of disease education. 8 In this study, cost was the most frequently cited barrier to care. Lack of education about DR is another barrier that could have greatly affected adherence rates.…”

Avaliação dos serviços de assistência ocular em população urbana de baixa renda da cidade de São Paulo - Brasil

“…As barreiras mais frequentemente apontadas pelos respondentes que necessitaram e não obtiveram assistência ocular foram o custo da consulta e a dificuldade de acesso ao serviço. Estes achados confirmam o de estudo brasileiro anterior sobre barreiras para cirurgia de catarata senil (12) e de estudos recentes em grupos minoritários de países desenvolvidos (13) e de população idosa afro-americana (14) . Quando o respondente afirmou que tentou, mas não foi possível obter a assistência ocular, não foi identificado o motivo do por que foi negado o atendimento.…”

Comparing the Effectiveness of Telemedicine and Traditional Surveillance in Providing Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Examinations: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…3,9 Obtaining eye examinations from eye care providers has been problematic for minorities (compared with non-Hispanic whites) because of greater difficulty with transportation, ability to access eye care providers, co-pays and other costs of the eye examination, and/or lack of health insurance. [10][11][12] Telemedicine may increase the number of patients with diabetes who receive diabetic retinopathy screening examinations in rural and limited-access populations because it allows for rapid retinal imaging without dilation in primary care clinics. This imaging has shown excellent diagnostic precision for diabetic retinopathy compared with examinations in eye care providers' offices with dilated pupils.…”