L Stainer, F Eperjesi, J S Wolffsohn
Aston University, Neurosciences Research Institute, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Background
In light of the recently published results from the AREDS project indicating a positive effect of nutritional supplements on the progression of ARMD but not cataract we surveyed a sample of British optometrists on their awareness, use and knowledge about nutritional supplements.
Method
Six hundred questionnaires were sent to randomly selected optometrists throughout mainland UK. 206 were returned a response rate of 34% and approximately 3% of the total number of registered optometrists. The first question asked about awareness of the possible role of supplements in prevention of development and progression of ARMD and cataract, the second asked about recommendations to patients while the last two used a 7 point Likert Scale and asked practitioners how important they thought supplements would become over the next decade and how informed they felt about supplements in general.
Results
70% of respondents were aware of the possible role in the prevention of development and 74% in the prevention of progression of ARMD, whilst for cataract the figures were 59% and 60% respectively. 38% and 22% of the respondents recommended supplements to prevent development and progression of ARMD respectively. 12% recommended supplements to prevent development and 12% to prevent progression of cataract. The average response to question 3 was 3.6, which suggested that the sample did not think that nutritional supplements would either be very important or very unimportant in the future. The average response to question 4 was 2.4, which indicated that the sample felt uninformed generally about supplements.
Conclusion
A large proportion of this sample were aware of the possible benefits of supplements but a smaller proportion recommended them to patients. This may be because they felt uninformed about supplements. Hopefully this will change especially for ARMD as the results from the AREDS trial are disseminated.
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