Objective:

Assess glaucoma awareness and perceived barriers to eye testing among attendees at a community event in a highly deprived urban neighbourhood.

Approach:

• Participants: Twenty-three consecutive attendees at a community glaucoma awareness event took part.
• Assessment: Participants completed a structured interview adapted from an earlier glaucoma-awareness study.

Key Findings:

• Eighty-seven percent had heard of glaucoma, and 57% demonstrated good understanding.
• Forty percent believed vision changes occur early in glaucoma; 39% said their eye pressure had never been measured.
• Some participants said they would delay eye testing until symptoms developed.
• Family and friends were the most frequently cited information source; 43% reported relatives with glaucoma.
• Many participants said further information about the importance of eye tests would encourage more regular attendance.

Interpretation:

The authors state that initiatives in deprived urban communities should provide actionable information that glaucoma can be asymptomatic, eye pressure measurement is part of routine optometric assessment, and regular sight testing matters even without visual symptoms.

Limitations:

• The small sample comprised community-event attendees.
• Selection bias cannot be excluded; 43% of participants reported relatives with glaucoma.