Factors associated with the difficulty faced by patients during the Humphrey visual field test in glaucoma assessment

Objectives: The study aims to find out the prevalence and factors associated with the difficulty faced by glaucoma patients during the Humphrey visual field (HVF) test. Material and Methods: A hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. A total of 233 glaucoma patients, who had performed the HVF test, were recruited with a convenience sampling technique. Face-to-face interviews with pre-tested and modified semi-structured questionnaires were used for data collection. The chi-square test was used to analyze the associations between difficulty and factors influencing difficulties. Results: Out of 233 participants, 194(83.3%) had faced difficulties during the assessment. The majority of the participants were challenged due to watering 88 (37.8%), followed by difficulty focusing constantly on the target 73 (31.3%), and confusion 59 (25.3%). The study found that there was a significant association between difficulty faced with test completed ( n = 195) and uncompleted ( n = 38), i.e. 156(80%) and 38(100%) respectively ( p = 0.003). There were no significant associations found between difficulties and patient-related factors i.e. Best Corrected Visual Acuity ( p =0.195), gender ( p = 0.154), age ( p = 0.286), and educational status ( p = 0.286) as well as technician-related factors ( p = 0.486). However, there were significant differences seen due to environmental factors, i.e. noise ( p =0.001). Conclusion: The majority of participants struggled during the procedure. Background noise was the major environmental factor influencing difficulties during the HVF assessment.