Table 3.

Sample statements illustrating each theme

Major Themes and Examples	Number of participants expressing theme	Number of times referenced
The role of social support     • I also think it's helpful if you teach your family to put in the drops... Because sometimes – I mean especially when you are older, you may – it just may be easier to let somebody else do it.”     • “Okay. The question – the first question, ‘do you have trouble putting in your eye drops?’ Well, typically my wife does it.”	7	25
Patient-provider relationship     • [Reading the questionnaire] “Do you feel like you have a good understanding of why you should take drops to treat your glaucoma? [Laughing] No! Because the doctor said so!”     • “...we're old enough that there was once doctors visited you at home and there was one physician that did everything. Now they are specialists, and I'm not convinced that the specialists are aware of what the other specialist has done and why.”     • There are times when I am sometimes concerned as to whether or not I'm getting the proper treatment at any given time, because of the busyness [of the doctors].”	18	61
Medication routine and action plan     • “I'll show you what I keep it in. I put drops in my eyes first thing in the morning. This goes to bed with me at night and it is on the nightstand [gestures to small pouch that she keeps medication in]. I keep it just in this little bag. I have a clean kleenex in here. I put in three drops a day in and so I have two that I put in three times a day, and then the one that I put in before I go to bed. And I also have Natural Tears that I keep in here, the individual ones. So, everything I need is right in here.”     • “What I need to do is post [a reminder] on my bathroom door, so it's on that door. “Go put your drops in your eyes.”	21	97
Disease and medication beliefs     • [Response to: Do you believe that glaucoma will really cause to lose vision?] “Well, because I've seen contrary things to that. That it won't affect your vision, and then also I've seen it you can lose your vision. So these are conflicting things that I've read.”	21	111
Eye drop instillation     • I was asked over and over, “isn't there anybody who could do it for you?” Well there isn't. You can't ask persons – people to keep on your schedule twice a day and pop in and give you an eye drop. So you have to learn to do that. And I did feel in the beginning that there could be a little bit more instructive help from tech people to – suggestions to help you do that, especially if you were having difficulty yourself for some reason.     • The other thing is, I have a tendency to use too much because I don't feel like I have it [meaning successfully got it in the eye], so then I run out.	14	30
Having a facilitator present the information improved the experience over a solely web-based program Participants could ask the facilitator questions     • “I don't think I could become addicted to it, can you?”     • “And do reading have an effect on [glaucoma]?”	21	381
Participants stated a preference for a facilitator     • “Well I think a personal part of it is always a little bit better, more intimate and you can ask questions more easily. Sometimes it is hard to articulate a question, but if you're with someone, you can work around till you finally get to what it is you want to know.”
Tailoring the educational information was useful Response to tailored health information:     • “Since this is personal, it's meaningful. I mean, this is the first time that I've seen – actually a print out of that on a screen, any results. And that helps considerably.”     • “I liked the images here. It always helps to... they say “One picture is worth a thousand words,” and I hadn't seen a picture of a healthy nerve, a healthy optic nerve, and I hadn't seen the pictures of my damaged optic nerve. I knew it had been damaged, but I like the visual approach.”	21	346
Responses to tailored testimonials:     • “Well, I think it's good because it gives the patient a chance to see what other people are doing and if they have problems, how they corrected those problems.     • “It makes it more human somehow to hear what other people – it's hard to find people who have glaucoma and to talk to other people. [It] really helps for me to compare some things with what people do.”