Journal of Neonatal Biology

Retinopathy of prematurity: Improving parental awareness and perceived importance of follow-up eye exams using an informative pamphlet (Interim Report)

9^th International Conference on Neonatology and Pediatric Neurology

November 28-30, 2016 Valencia, Spain

Soheil Daftarian

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Neonatal Biol

Abstract:

Introduction: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the pathological development of retinal vasculature effecting low birth weight preterm infants. Successful treatment to prevent blindness depends on adherence to timely eye screening examinations of at-risk infants. Failure to follow up for these exams has led to tragic cases of blindness that were potentially preventable. We examined the effectiveness of a user-friendly pamphlet in improving parents' perceived importance of and ultimate adherence to ROP screening guidelines. Methods: We provided an informative pamphlet on ROP to parents of infants with low birth weight (<1500 g) and preterm (<32 weeks) infants. Before and after reading the pamphlet, the parents were given a topical quiz on ROP as well as a Likert scale (1-5) on their level of perceived importance for timely follow-up screening. Results: All 9 babies in our study successfully presented to their first screening exam as scheduled. Before reading the pamphlet, 2 of the 9 parents chose lower than a 5 (Extremely Important) on the Likert scale for perceived importance of follow up eye exams. However, after reading the pamphlet, all parents marked importance of follow-up as 5 out of 5. Discussion: All parents understood timely follow-up exams to be extremely important after reading the pamphlet. Therefore, we suggest providing user friendly, informative material on ROP to parents of pre-term infants could help reduce the rate of loss to follow-up and thus potentially preventable vision loss in these patients.

Biography :

Email: soheild@gmail.com