Patients' knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward dry eye disease management.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) among patients with dry eye disease (DED) toward disease management. METHODS: This web-based cross-sectional study was conducted between February 2023 and August 2024 at our hospital. A self-designed questionnaire was developed to collect demographic information of DED patients, and assess their KAP toward disease management. RESULTS: A total of 500 valid questionnaires were collected. Among them, 58.60% (293) were male, 26.80% (134) aged 43–54 years old and 51.2% (256) with moderate severity of DED. The mean score for knowledge, attitudes and practices was 5.80 ± 2.39 (possible range: 0–11), 38.68 ± 5.26 (possible range: 11–55), and 29.60 ± 8.22 (possible range: 9–45), respectively. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed positive correlation between knowledge and attitudes (r = 0.482, P < 0.001). Multivariate logistic analysis demonstrated that being divorced or widowed (OR = 0.382, 95% CI: 0.165–0.886, P = 0.025) and moderate dry eye severity (OR = 0.459, 95% CI: 0.269–0.781, P = 0.004) were independently associated with knowledge, possibly due to limited social support and lower health literacy among these subgroups. Knowledge (OR = 1.456, 95% CI: 1.308–1.621, P < 0.001), moderate dry eye severity (OR = 0.452, 95% CI: 0.254–0.804, P = 0.007) and occasionally experiencing eye discomfort in the past week (OR = 0.431, 95% CI: 0.189–0.982, P = 0.045) were independently associated with attitudes. Attitudes (OR = 1.082, 95% CI: 1.033–1.134, P = 0.001), being divorced or widowed (OR = 0.447, 95% CI: 0.211–0.944, P = 0.035), aqueous deficiency (OR = 2.103, 95% CI: 1.036–4.272, P = 0.040) and lipid abnormality (OR = 2.937, 95% CI: 1.616–5.338, P < 0.001) were independently associated with practices. Structural equation model demonstrated that knowledge positively affect attitudes (path coefficient = 2.950, P < 0.001) and attitudes positively affect practices (path coefficient = 0.595, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: DED patients demonstrated insufficient knowledge, passive attitudes, and poor practices toward DED. The implementation of educational initiatives and comprehensive training programs emerges as imperative in order to enhance KAP among DED patients. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.