Patients' views of visual field testing and priorities for research development and translation into practice

Abstract

There is limited information regarding the views of patients, as healthcare consumers, on visual field testing, and no information regarding their preferences for future test developments. This study aimed to increase knowledge of patients' subjective experience of visual field assessment and to explore their opinions and priorities regarding current active areas of research and development. Online questionnaire with purposive sampling design. Adults who regularly perform visual field tests in Australia who report having glaucoma or being at risk of glaucoma. An anonymous survey, implemented using the Qualtrics webtool, with both closed and open ended questions designed to explore opinions regarding visual field testing, visit attendance for perimetry, as well as priorities for developments. The survey assessed three domains: 1) opinions regarding visual field test duration and visit frequency; 2) subjective experience; and 3) perspectives on future developments for perimetry. 152 complete survey responses were obtained. The median (IQR) age of participants was 66 (60-72) years. Most participants (70%) had experience of performing more than 11 visual field tests. Participants recalled that they completed visual field tests in median of 6 minutes (IQR: 5-8 minutes) and were willing to accept additional time (median: 5, IQR: 3-6 minutes) to obtain more information. Participants were prepared to increase both the number of visual field tests per eye and the frequency of visual field tests (median: 3, IQR: 2-4 visits per year), in order to gain more information about their visual status. Regarding future developments, the most preferred option was "similar test times but an increase in the level of information about my visual field", which ranked significantly higher than all other options including "shorter test times that maintain the currently available level of information about my visual field." Our study confirms, in a different population and healthcare system, previous research reporting patient perspectives on visual field assessment. We further reveal that healthcare consumers show a strong preference for accurate information about their vision and report being prepared to undergo longer visual field tests or more visual field tests to achieve that outcome.