Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

A cross-sectional study of the actual use of eye drops in a Saudi community

Abdulsalam Alfawzan¹, Anas Al Ahmed², Sara Almuhanna¹, Hadeel Alfahmi³, Abdulallah Alshein¹, Mohammad Kariri¹, Amani Alsultan¹, Ahmad Almeman⁴

¹Department of Pharmaceutical Care, Buraidah Central Hospital, Ministry of Health, Buraidah; ²Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Clinical Pharmacy, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa; ³Department of Clinical of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Umm-Al-Qura University, Makkah; ⁴Research Centre, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Qassim, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

For correspondence:- Ahmad Almeman Email: meman@qu.edu.sa Tel:+9665488897

Accepted: 23 March 2018 Published: 30 April 2018

Citation: Alfawzan A, Al Ahmed A, Almuhanna S, Alfahmi H, Alshein A, Kariri M, et al. A cross-sectional study of the actual use of eye drops in a Saudi community. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(4):709-713 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i4.21

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the actual use of eye drops with respect to their administration, storage, and disposal in a community in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: A cross-sectional observational survey was conducted online. All the relevant data were collected using a standardized questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of three sections: demographic characteristics of the participants, attitude of participants with respect to the administration and storage of eye drops, and the participants’ understanding of the role of pharmacist in enhancing patients’ compliance with eye drop regimens.

Results: A total of 720 participants were included in the study, viz, 229 males (31.8 %) and 491 females (68.2 %). Majority of the participants (82.5 %) indicated that they avoided touching their eyes with the bottle tip. Likewise, most participants (90.8 %) reported that they applied eye ointment after administering eye drops while 30.6 % allowed an interval of < 5 min between eye drop and ointment administration. However, 30.5 % of the participants gave an interval of 5 – 10 min between eye drop and ointment treatment. Furthermore, 32.5 % reported that they consistently washed their hands before administering eye drops, while only 29.6 % occasionally washed their hands.

Conclusion: These results indicate that all the patients used eye drops improperly at some point in time, and thus, there is a need for counselling on the appropriate use of eye drops as an essential step towards successful treatment

Keywords: Eye drops, Ophthalmic preparations, Adherence, Instillation