Knowledge, attitude and perception of optometrists in Trinidad and Tobago towards teleoptometry

Background: The limited accessibility of in-person optometry services during the coronavirus disease 2019 highlighted the need for teleoptometry but no data exists to substantiate the fore-going in Trinidad & Tobago (T&T). The study assessed the knowledge, attitude and perception (KAP) of optometrists toward teleoptometry in T&T. Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized a convenient sampling technique to administer a structured, web-based survey to all registered optometrists in T&T between March and June 2021. Information on demographics and KAP of teleoptometry were collected. Descriptive sta-tistics (mean, percentages, and standard deviations) were used to describe the characteristics of respondents. The mean scores for the main outcomes (KAP) were compared between the cate-gorical groups of the demographic variables, using a one-way analysis of variance. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Of the 116 registered optometrists in T&T, 63 responded to the survey (response rate, 54.3%), and were mostly women (44, 69.8%), aged 21-30 years (42, 66.7%), worked in urban regions (41, 65.1%), and half of them (32, 50.8%) had practiced optometry for five or more years. More than two-thirds of the optometrists (76.4%) reported that they had never provided tele-optometry services, and only a few (2, 3.2%) had training on teleoptometry. The percentage mean scores for knowledge were significantly lower than attitude (38.5 +/- 17.9% vs 78.2 +/- 29.9%; P = 0.002) and perception (46.2 +/- 11.4%; P < 0.001) scores, all of which were significantly lower among self-employed than employed optometrists (P < 0.02, for all three variables). While men and non-professional computer users had higher mean scores for attitude than women (3.03 [95% CI: 2.14, 3.93] vs 2.31 [95%CI: 1.41, 3.21], P = 0.037) and professional users (3.15 [95%CI: 2.07, 4.24] vs 2.18 [95%CI: 1.12, 3.24], P = 0.001), knowledge and perception scores varied signifi-cantly with practitioners' years of experience (P = 0.042) and age (P = 0.041), respectively. Conclusion: The findings of the study suggest that although there was limited knowledge of tel-eoptometry among the participants, particularly the self-employed and the less experienced op-tometrists, most of them had good attitudes and perceptions toward teleoptometry. To fill the identified knowledge gap, there is a need for teleoptometry training among optometrists in T&T.