Diabetic Retinal Screening: why patients do or do not attend?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing an instrument using the Theory of Planned Behaviour to explore barriers and enablers to patient attendance at the Diabetic Eye Screening Programme.
IRAS ID
212854
Contact name
Darren Shickle
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 7 days
Research summary
Our study seeks to develop an instrument using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Azjen I. (1988). Attitudes, personality and behaviour. Milton Keynes: OUP) to assess barriers and enablers to attendance at the Diabetic Eye Screening Programme.
Diabetic eye disease is one of the leading causes of blindness in people of working age, yet one that is treatable to delay or potentially prevent sight loss. Despite this, the 2014-15 uptake data for Leeds indicate that 17.8% of eligible patients do not attend screening appointments, compared to 17.1% for England overall (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-screening-programmes-kpi-reports-2014-to-2015). Yorkshire and Humber region has the highest incidence of preventable sight loss caused by diabetic retinopathy in the country. The incidence of Certificates of Vision Impairment due to diabetic eye disease in Yorkshire and the Humber is 4.6/100,000 people aged 12 or over (95% confidence interval 4.0-5.3) compared to 3.2 (95% C.I. 3.1-3.4) for England overall (www.phoutcomes.info).
Previous research conducted by the team in Leeds used routine screening clinic data to explore the demographic characteristics of attenders/ non-attenders. This study looks to build on these findings by collecting information directly from patients on attitudes to screening and diabetic eye disease using questions derived from the Theory of Planned Behaviour.
The research described in this ethics application aims to develop and pilot a questionnaire to investigate patients' views towards the barriers and enablers to diabetic eye screening appointments. The questionnaire will be based upon the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), utilising the manual by Francis et al, 2004 (http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1735/). It will be developed with the assistance of patients attending the Leeds diabetic eye screening programme.
A separate ethics application will be submitted at a later date to utilise the questionnaire in a 'full-size' study.
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
17/WA/0040
Date of REC Opinion
7 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion