Glaucoma treatment adherence: perception vs reality

We asked two groups the same question at a national glaucoma congress. The answers were… surprisingly different.

During Congresul Societății Române de Glaucom 2026, we ran a small empirical survey exploring how two groups perceive adherence:

• Ophthalmologists treating glaucoma daily
• Pharma industry representatives

29 respondents answered two simple questions:

1️⃣ What percentage of glaucoma patients remain adherent to treatment?
2️⃣ For how long do they remain adherent on average?

What doctors estimate

Average adherence:~47%

Average persistence:~22 months

Range reported by physicians: 25% – 70% adherence

What pharma respondents estimate

Average adherence: ~87.5%

Average persistence: ~41 months

The perception gap

That is a ~40 percentage point difference in perceived adherence.

Interestingly, published research typically places glaucoma adherence around: ~50–60%

Which means:

➡️ Physician estimates align closely with literature

➡️ Industry perception appears significantly higher

Why this matters

Glaucoma is a disease where:

• early stages are asymptomatic
• treatment requires lifelong daily drops
• benefits are preventive, not immediately visible

These characteristics make long-term adherence particularly difficult.

If the physician estimate is closer to reality, more than half of glaucoma patients may not remain adherent to therapy long term.

For a disease that can lead to irreversible vision loss, improving adherence may be one of the largest untapped opportunities to improve outcomes.

A small but revealing observation

Survey responses also showed an interesting behavioral pattern:

• Ophthalmologists responded early morning (before clinical sessions)
• Pharma participants responded later in the day

Two professional worlds — two perspectives on the same problem.

Why we ran this mini-study

At StayOnTreatment®, we are exploring ways to better support long-term adherence by enabling structured patient support communication between doctors and patients.

This mini-study was a simple empirical exercise to better understand how adherence is perceived by those closest to the problem.