Purpose
Effective patient education has therapeutic value for improving adherence to medical regimens. One strategy for personalizing patient education used by pharmaceutical industries utilizes psychographic segmentation paradigms to identify individual educational needs. Education strategies are then targeted according to patient cognitive-behavioural subtypes with the aim of increasing medication compliance. Patient psychographic segmentation in neuro-ophthalmology, with the goal of targeting education to increase compliance with medical recommendations, has not been studied. The goal of this project was to characterize the educational needs of neuro-ophthalmology patients at tertiary-care academic centers using a validated patient segmentation tool, and glaucoma patients in the same centers as control.

Methods
Subjects were recruited as they arrived for scheduled outpatient appointments at neuro-ophthalmology and glaucoma clinics. Subjects were asked to complete a short 7-question Better Conversations© survey (Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation). Responses were divided into four segments based on an established algorithm for educational needs. Segments were then collapsed into categories for high and low educational needs (HEN/LEN). Distribution of patients was compared between neuro-ophthalmology and glaucoma. Subject age, gender, distance travelled, number of medications (as a proxy for health) and new vs. follow-up appointment status were considered as covariates.

Results
To date, among 152 respondents (97% response rate (152/157), ages 19-97, 58% female, 72 glaucoma, 80 neuro-ophthalmology), 55 were HEN and 97 LEN. Though both neuro-ophthalmology and glaucoma clinics had a majority of LEN subjects, the proportion of HEN was greater in neuro-ophthalmology (44% vs. 28%, p=0.04, chi-square).  HEN and LEN subjects did not differ with respect to age, gender, distance travelled, number of medications or new vs. follow-up status.

Conclusion
The field of neuro-ophthalmology has a large proportion of HEN patients compared to glaucoma, and is thus particularly suited for implementation of targeted educational interventions. Current research is underway to compare educational needs amongst ophthalmology subspecialties across global institutions. Further research is required to understand personality and illness perception characteristics among HEN patients in order to tailor educational interventions accordingly, with the goal of improving health outcomes through increased compliance.

Comparing patient educational needs among ophthalmology subspecialty clinics

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