ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Adult Patients With Myopia Toward Refractive Surgery and Postoperative Medications: A Cross-Sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
- Affiliated Hospital of Panzhihua University, Panzhihua, China
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Introduction: This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of adult patients with myopia regarding refractive surgery and the use of postoperative medications. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between July 2024 and November 2024 at The Affiliated Hospital of Panzhihua University. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Results: A total of 433 valid responses were collected. Among the participants, 231 (53.3%) were female, 216 (49.9%) had a spherical equivalent refractive error between -3.00 and -6.00 diopters in both eyes, and 154 (35.6%) reported daily screen time ranging from 6 to 12 hours. The mean (SD) knowledge, attitude, and practice scores were 10.60 (range: 0-18), 38.61 (range: 11-55), and 18.81 (range: 6-30), respectively, where the ranges indicate the minimum and maximum achievable scores. Significant positive correlations were found among knowledge, attitude and practice (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that knowledge significantly influenced both attitude (OR = 1.200, 95% CI: [1.133,1.272], P < 0.001) and behavioral engagement (OR = 1.255, 95% CI: [1.177,1.339], P < 0.001). Structural equation modeling (SEM) results showed that knowledge directly affected attitude (β = 0.546, P < 0.001) and practice (β = 0.246, P < 0.001), attitude also directly affected practice (β = 0.468, P < 0.001). Additionally, knowledge indirectly affected practice through attitude (β = 0.256, P < 0.001). Conclusion: Patients with myopia demonstrated insufficient knowledge and suboptimal practices despite generally positive attitudes toward refractive surgery and postoperative care. These findings highlight the urgent need for structured patient education strategies to improve adherence and optimize postoperative visual quality.
Keywords: Attitude, knowledge, Myopic refractive surgery, Postoperative Visual Quality Management, Practice
Received: 02 Dec 2025; Accepted: 05 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wei, Zhou, Huang, Liu and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Huan Wei
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