ABRÉGÉ SOUMIS POUR LE CONGRÈS INTERNATIONAL DE L’AMERICANACADEMYOF OPTOMETRY, 23-27 octobre 2019, Orlando, Florida, USA
Date limite pour soumettre un résumé : 31 mai 2019
Règles : Abstract character count limit including title is 3,000 (includes spaces, but not author names and affiliations). (Actually: 2506 characters).
TITLE: Home-based primary eye care services: interest and barriers among optometrists in Quebec
Authors: Caroline Morin-Houde, Amélie Larouche, Benoit Tousignant, Judith Renaud
PURPOSE: With the aging population in Quebec, there is a growing need to provide home-based primary eye care services to patients with decreased mobility or autonomy. Currently, limited data exist on the number of Quebec optometrists providing these services and on their interest and barriers relative to this type of practice. This study aims to measure the level of interest and barriers of Quebec optometrists to offer home-based eye care services.
METHODS: An online survey was sent to active members of the Ordre des optométristes du Québec (Quebec regulatory board of optometry). Recruitment was performed by email and social media. For descriptive variables, frequencies and percentages were calculated, and analyses were conducted using chi-square tests. RESULTS: The participation rate was 13.3% (n = 186). Forty-two percent of the participants were at least 40 years old and 67% were women. Only 8.5% of the participants performed at least one home-based eye examination in the last 12 months, but 23.7% showed an interest in providing that type of services. Several barriers to home-based services were identified; the three most important being unavailability of portable instrumentation (91% of participants), complex logistics (89%) and insufficient remuneration (88%). Lack of self-confidence (p < 0.05) and lack of knowledge in home-based eye care (p < 0.05) were more a barrier for women than for men. In the presence of a facilitator, such as a third-party organization providing logistic support (coordination with nursing homes, providing portable ophthalmic instrumentation, etc.), the level of interest to perform home-based eye care increased to 60%. In general, young optometrists (< 40 years old) showed more interest in providing home-based eye care services than their older colleagues (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that currently, few Quebec optometrists seem to provide home-based eye care services, with main barriers identified as financial, logistic or instrumentation-related. Given the low participation rate, it is not possible to generalize the results to all Quebec optometrists. Nevertheless, these results reveal interesting venues to enhance accessibility to eye care services for people with impaired mobility or autonomy. In particular, a third-party organisation that would manage the complex logistics might improve the provision of home-based eye care services.
