# Support, Educate, Empower: The SEE Personalized Glaucoma Coaching Trial: Diversity Supplement

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2022 · $140,492

## Abstract

R01 EY031337 PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Despite the availability of effective treatments, glaucoma causes more people to become irreversibly blind than
any other disease worldwide, especially among socially and economically disadvantaged groups. 80% of
patients do not adhere to their prescribed glaucoma medications. African Americans and people with lower
socio-economic status are more likely to experience poor medication adherence and adverse vision-related
outcomes. Because improved adherence is associated with decreased vision loss from glaucoma, there is a
critical need to better support the diverse self-management needs of people with glaucoma. Our long-term
goal is to substantially increase glaucoma medication adherence among patients from diverse backgrounds by
more effectively engaging them in glaucoma self-management behaviors. Our scientific premise is based on
prior rigorous National Eye Institute-funded work demonstrating the need for improved self-management
support for patients with glaucoma. Evidence-based communication, education, and outreach strategies, such
as tailored education, motivational-interviewing (MI) based counseling and reminder systems, can improve
adherence and outcomes for diverse patients. Our central hypothesis is that glaucoma patients with poor
adherence who participate in the Support, Educate and Empower (SEE) Program will improve their medication
adherence. In the SEE Program, participants receive 1) Personally tailored education generated by an eHealth
application delivered in-person combined with MI-based counseling from a health educator trained as a
glaucoma coach and 2) reminders tailored to participant preference including audible or visual alerts and/or
text or phone calls when a dose is missed. Our overall objective is to test whether the SEE Program,
compared to standard care, improves medication adherence through a randomized clinical trial among 230
glaucoma patients with poor medication adherence at enrollment. An essential component of the SEE Program
is its inclusion of non-physician health care providers—health educators— to provide the education,
counseling, and support that glaucoma patients with poor adherence require. Impact: Upon completion of the
trial, we will have rigorously evaluated an intervention that is highly scalable and sustainable due to its
application of eHealth technologies and use of non-physician providers. The evidence from this study will
inform effective behavior-change strategies and approaches to address racial and socioeconomic disparities in
glaucoma outcomes. Ultimately, our findings will inform and shape clinical practice guidelines by promoting
evidence-based models that improve medication adherence and visual outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10577970
- **Project number:** 3R01EY031337-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Paula Anne Newman-Casey
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $140,492
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10577970

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10577970, Support, Educate, Empower: The SEE Personalized Glaucoma Coaching Trial: Diversity Supplement (3R01EY031337-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10577970. Licensed CC0.

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