Comparison of Contact Lens Hygiene Compliance and Self-Management Behaviors between Medical and Non-Medical Students in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Contact lenses are commonly worn by young population for many purposes such as vision correction, cosmetic causes and as a fashion trend. Although wearing contact lens is safe and does not require expertise but it can cause serious eye infections and corneal ulcers, sometimes resulting into loss of vision. The study is designed to com-pare and observe the contact lens hygiene compliance and self-management behavior with a focus on the contact lens wearing habits, cleaning and maintenance of contact lens by different methods and self-prescription between the medical and non-medical students of the Saudi Arabia. Methods: Five hundred young contact lens wearers with an average age of 18-22 years were selected conveniently from the student population of Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh. After taking informed consent from the participants, their level of contact lens hygiene compliance and self-management was assessed by using a peer-reviewed questionnaire. Results: The mean (±SD) age of the participants was 20.87± 1.696 years. Out of 500 students 37.8% were medical and 62.2% were non-medical students. 56% students were wearing contact lens for the cosmetic reasons while 43.6% students were using it for the correction of their myopic refractive error. Most of the students were using daily wear soft contact lenses (96.6%) by self-prescription (51.4%) and majority of them were buying them from general retail store (83.6%) instead of some proper optician. The self-management behavior was statistically significant among nonmedical students (p=0.026). There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the compliance of the contact lens hygiene but the knowledge and awareness about the risks and complications was statistically high in the medical students (p= 0.028). Most of the students in our study had rated them as an average wearer. Conclusion: This study concludes that self-management with the contact lens use is very common among the nonmedical students of Saudi Arabia. Although they are good in the lens hygiene compliance but their knowledge about the risks and complications of contact lens use and the lens care accessories was significantly low.