Glaucoma is chronic, progressive asymptomatic optic neuropathy due to a variety of ocular conditions which lead to damage of the optic nerve with permanent visual loss and eventual blindness. Intraocular pressure is the only modifiable risk factor. It is usually unnoticed until advanced visual field loss is present or central field is damaged. To date, there is no neuro-regenerative therapy and visual loss is permanent. Therefore early diagnosis is imperative.

Various population studies have shown that about one half of all persons with manifest glaucoma in a given population are unaware that they have the disease. Normal tension glaucoma was found to be four times as common in patients identified through population screening compared to self-selected patients suggesting that special efforts like glaucoma screening are necessary to detect manifest glaucoma at an earlier stage than it currently is.

Hypothesis

The evaluation and discovery of the reasons for seeking eye care for glaucoma are important as this might help us better understand the human factors and develop new and better strategies to capture a larger section of the population.