Purpose: To verify the social characteristics and the impact of glaucoma treatment on the familial income of patients followed at a university hospital. Methods: One hundred and forty six glaucomatous patients were interviewed at the Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de Campinas to evaluate their social economic profile. The questionnaire investigated the occupation, the individual and familial income, as well as the type and frequency of the antiglaucomatous drugs used by each patient. Knowing the monthly cost of antiglaucomatous drugs available in Brazil, we were able to calculate the monthly cost of glaucoma treatment and the percentage of committed familial income. Results: The mean monthly cost of glaucoma treatment was 36.09 ± 31.99 reais, which corresponded to 15.5% of the familial income. Thirty-six (24%) patients had 25 percent or more of the familial income spent on their treatment. Sixty-six (45.2%) patients had difficulty in buying their medications. Factors associated with this difficulty included low familial income (p=0.0001), and high percentage of the income used to buy the drugs (p=0.0002). Conclusion: The cost of glaucoma treatment is high compared to the income of patients treated at a public institution. This population has a low familial income, of which a high percentage is required to acquire antiglaucoma medications. We suggest that these patients may be at risk for low compliance due to economical limitations.
Glaucoma; Health care costs
