Could Religious Beliefs Affect Compliance with Ocular Treatment?
For people of strong faith, religious beliefs and related cultural taboos can have a powerful impact on how they care for their health, including the medical treatments they choose to accept. Increasingly, ophthalmologists (Eye M.D.s) in the US and other countries, care for patients of diverse backgrounds. This is accelerating the need for reliable information on the interaction of religious beliefs and compliance with prescribed treatments. The effectiveness of glaucoma treatment, in particular, often depends on patients’ ability and willingness to self-administer eye drop medications on a regular schedule over months or years. Glaucoma patients often notice no symptoms in the early stages of the disease, which poses challenges for physicians in motivating patients to stick to treatment regimens. If patients neglect treatment until their vision noticeably declines, the damage is often irreversible. Many of the world’s religions practice obligatory or voluntary fasting—abstaining fro
