Prevalence of Ophthalmic Diseases, Drug Utilization and Vision Function Related Qol in Ophthalmic Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Pharmaceutical Science-Pharmacy practice for good health promotion

Abstract

Day by day,  the number  of  individuals  suffering from ophthalmic diseases  has  been increasing. Therefore, it  is essential  to  determine  the  magnitude  of  the  problem  in  different  local  regions  as  well  as  at  the  country  level.  Hence  a prospective observational study was planned to evaluate the prevalence of various ophthalmic diseases, drug utilization patterns, and quality of life in ophthalmic patients. Five hundred patients were enrolled in the study. Data were analyzed according to the patient's age, gender, type of diseases, prescribing pattern, vision function-related quality of life. Majority of patients had mature cataract disease (20%), followed by immature Cataract (15.6%), refractive errors (18.4%), Conjunctivitis (9.8%), glaucoma (4%), and superficial punctate keratitis (4%), Pterygium (4.2%), etc. Fluoroquinolones were the most commonly prescribed antibiotics, but this class of drugs was prescribed in combination mainly with steroids. The most common anti-allergy drugs prescribed were olopatadine and ketorolac. Vision function-related quality of life in ophthalmic patients was assessed using the VF-14 SCALE.  It revealed that the majority of patients have high vision function-related quality of life of about 80-100 VF SCORE in 45.2%. This study states that Cataract was the leading disease in the ophthalmology department, and vision function was affecting the quality of life in these patients.