PATIENT ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS REGARDING COMPLIANCE DURING CONTACT LENS WEAR

Patient non-compliance is a condition that threatens the eye health of patients during contact lens (CL) wear. The aim of this study was to evaluate non-compliant behaviors in CL wearers and to examine the relationship between these behaviors and demographic and CL wear characteristics.

survey study

In this telephone survey study, 90 CL wearers who were followed up at Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Ophthalmology Department, Contact Lens Unıt between 2016-2021 were included. Each patient was questioned by a single interviewer (an ophthalmologist, O.O.) regarding his or her CL wear characteristics (on topics such as CL wear time, daily wear time, sleeping in lenses, water activity while wearing contact lenses, wearing lenses longer than recommended, etc.) CL care practices (on topics such as poor hand washing prior to lens handling, inadequate lens cleaning and disinfecting, prolonged use of contact lens cases, etc.).

Ninety CL wearers (61 female [67.8%], 29 male [32.2%]) with a mean age of 27.8±9.1 years were included in the study 64 (71.1%) of the users expressed at least one non-compliant behavior. Major non-compliance aspects identified were rinsing lenses with tap water (n=22, 24.4%), replacing lenses less frequently than recommended (n=21, 23.3%) and sleeping in CLs (n=16, 17.7%). The mean number of non-compliant behaviors was 2.1±1.7 for the wearers younger than 25 years of age (n=37, 41%) and 1.3± 1.4 for the patients aged ≥ 25 years (n=53, 58.9%) (p = 0.011). There was no statistically significant relationship between the non-compliant behaviors and other factors such as gender, CL purchase location, CL wear time and daily wear time (p>0.05 for all).

Non-compliant behaviors related to CL wear and care can be detected in a significant proportion of CL wearers. Young wearers may be more prone to exhibit these behaviors, so more attention should be paid to training on CL wear and care in these wearers.