Parents’ views on their children’s use of eye drops and willingness to accept a new sustained-release subconjunctival injection

Abstract

Aim: The objectives of this study were to explore parents’ views about their children’s use of regular eye drops and whether they would consider a sustained-release subconjunctival injection as a replacement for daily drops. Methods: A survey was conducted with 134 parents of children with chronic eye diseases at the Singapore National Eye Centre. Parents were asked their views about their children’s use of eye drops and were then presented with a discrete choice experiment that, via a series of trade-off tasks, allowed for estimating demand for a series of hypothetical subconjunctival injections that varied along product features, including interval between administrations, risk of complications, out-of-pocket cost and whether it is recommended by the patient’s treating physician. Results: Results showed that the vast majority of parents did not find administration of eye drops to be inconvenient (78%) nor did children complain about using daily eye drops (78%). Furthermore, only about half of parents whose child missed doses stated concerns about the consequences of non-compliance. The discrete choice experiment revealed that only one in five parents would consider a subconjunctival injection for their children. These parents tended to be more concerned about the consequences of non-compliance with eye drops, had children who administered the drops themselves or had other chronic disease requiring regular medication. Among these parents, risk of complications had the largest effect on injection uptake. Conclusion: This study shows that parents do not find administration of daily eye drops to be a significant burden. As a result, most would not consider a subconjunctival injection unless risk of complications was extremely small.