Effectiveness of a short message reminder on compliance to follow up after cataract surgery in an outreach setting - Trial PACTR202310751607000

Timeline & Enrollment

Summary

INTRODUCTION: Cataract is defined as the gradual clouding of the crystalline lens and is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Globally, cataract is the commonest cause of blindness, and cataract surgery has been shown to be one of the most cost-effective health-care interventions. Patients follow-up visit rates vary greatly across developing countries from as low as 27% in China to as high as 93% in Latin America. Studies have suggested that improvement of postoperative follow-up is critical to enhancing cataract surgical outcomes. Community eye outreach programs have played a very important role in improving access to surgeries. Loss to follow up has been shown to be one of the major drawbacks of outreach based surgery which could pose challenges to prompt diagnosis and management of postoperative complications.AIM:  To evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile phone short message service (SMS) reminder on adherence to post-op follow up and the visual outcome of patients who had cataract surgery in an outreach setting with a view to improving eye care delivery. METHODOLOGY: This study is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effectiveness of a short message reminder among cataract patients who will be assigned randomly to receive SMS reminders about an up-coming appointment and those who will not receive SMS reminders after cataract surgery in outreach setting.Data will be analyzed using MS Excel spread sheet and Stata MP Version 17 (StataCorp). Results will be presented in tables and charts. Variables will be compared using chi-square and statistical significance determined at p< 0.5.SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:1- To assess whether a mobile phone short message service (SMS) reminder will improve follow-up compliance for patients operated for cataract in an outreach setting.2- To identify factors responsible for poor compliance to follow up after cataract surgery.3- To determine the visual outcome of cataract surgery in patients operated in an outreach setting. 4- To identify factors responsible for poor visual outcome after cataract surgery in an outreach setting.

ICD-10 Classifications