ABSTRACT:

Background: studying patients' compliance and related factors is essential in the process of glaucoma treatment.

Aim: This study aims to identify the effect of Ramadan fasting and other factors affecting compliance during fasting among glaucoma patients in Aswan.

Methods: In the form of 20 -close ended- questions, 400 questionnaires were filled by glaucoma patients in the outpatient clinic in Aswan university hospital. After applying the exclusion criteria, 248 patients were accepted for this study. Different variables were investigated such as: age, gender, level of education, patients' beliefs and attitude towards using eye drops during fasting.

Results: Patients' compliance during fasting was significantly affected by their beliefs, as 87.8% of patients who believed that eye drops do not break the fast were compliant (p =0.001). While 88.1% (p =0.044) of patients who discussed using eye drops during fasting with their ophthalmologists were more compliant to antiglaucoma drops during fasting. The other factors targeted by our study, their effect on compliance during fasting were not proven to be statistically significant.

Conclusion: patients' compliance was significantly affected by their beliefs. Also, having a discussion about using eye drops during fasting with ophthalmologist had a positive influence on patients' compliance during Ramadan.