Study suggests equivalent comfort levels for spectacles, contacts

A recently published study found that 1-Day Acuvue TruEye Brand contact lenses (narafilcon A) were comparable to wearing no lenses at all and had no clinically significant effect on the ocular surface of the eye as compared to noncontact lens wearers, according to a Vistakon press release.

The study, published in Contact Lens & Anterior Eye, was randomized, investigator-masked and included 74 subjects, according to the release.

Subjective comfort data, biomicroscopy and visual acuity were recorded at baseline, 2 weeks and 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Comfort data also were collected at 1 week and 5 weeks by text messaging every 3 hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for 5 days. Slit lamp signs were graded 0 to 4 (absent, trace, mild, moderate, severe) in 0.1 increments using the Efron grading scale, and visual acuity (high and low contrast) was measured using the logMAR scale, the release said.

“The novel nature of this clinical study represented a significant challenge for the contact lens under test,” study co-author Philip B. Morgan, PhD, BSc, director, Eurolens Research, the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, said in the release. “It’s pleasing that not only can modern contact lens materials and designs now be tested against people not using contact lenses, they are able to offer comparable performance for comfort and certain key indicators of eye health.”

The study was sponsored by Vistakon Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc., according to the release.