THE ELDERLY WITH GLAUCOMA, AN URGENT NEED TO PROMOTE SELF CARE BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to evidence an emerging health problem related to the aging of the population: elderly suffering from glaucoma. This chronic sense loss leading to irreversible blindness causes devastating consequences, mainly unknown by the affected population. Moreover, there is no clarity about the magnitude of the problem in our country, in what concerns the care requirements to cope with this loss, the factors that affect the eye self care behaviour, as well as the impact in the quality of life. This situation means an urgent call for nurses, as direct responsible actors in the care and self care agents for the population in charge of.