Poor public health knowledge about glaucoma: fact or fiction?

PURPOSE: To document public awareness and knowledge of glaucoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study used health knowledge questionnaires. (a) A short, structured telephone interview was performed with a nationally representative sample of 1009 people. (b) A more detailed questionnaire was administered in two contrasting regions by telephone (500 interviews from the Isle of Wight and 226 interviews from Ealing) or face to face (300 interviews from Ealing). RESULTS: Between 71 and 93% of those interviewed by telephone reported having heard of glaucoma, compared with only 23% of those interviewed face to face in Ealing. Of those who reported having heard of glaucoma, over 80% had at least some knowledge about the disease. CONCLUSION: This is the first study of public awareness of glaucoma across the UK. We found a relatively high level of awareness and knowledge of glaucoma in the general UK population, but identified at least one pocket of poor knowledge in a specific sub-population.