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ECP perception of daily disposable contacts largely positive
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A majority of eye care professionals perceive that silicone hydrogel daily disposable contact lenses offer long-term eye comfort and health, a recent online survey suggests.
“The convenience and other benefits of 1-day contact lenses, combined with higher amounts of oxygen delivered with silicone hydrogel materials, is quickly becoming an industry standard,” Gary Orsborn, OD, MS, FAAO, FBCLA, vice president of global professional and clinical affairs at CooperVision, told Primary Care Optometry News. “Trends in the decisions U.S. optometrists are making in their contact lens practices are consistent with what is being seen in other key markets around the world.”
Researchers evaluated 300 eligible eye care providers from the U.S., U.K. and Japan. To be considered for the study, providers were required to be qualified to fit contact lenses; work at an independent practice, contact lens specialist store or chain, multiple retailer or ophthalmology clinic; have 3 to 35 years of contact fitting experience; be personally responsible for fitting and selecting contact lens brands; fit at least 25 patients with lenses in a typical month with 20% of lenses being daily disposable; and not be affiliated with a contact lens or health care manufacturer serving as a clinical consultant, researcher or investigator.
Participants evaluated 34 statements regarding the comfort, health, patient experience and standard of care of daily disposable lenses using a 6-point Likert scale, with a minimum 70% agreement required to define majority agreement.
Overall, the statement with the highest rating (93%) was “Silicone hydrogel 1-day lenses satisfy today’s patients’ demanding lifestyles,” with the statements “Silicone hydrogel 1-day lenses are the best choice to safeguard my patients’ eye health related to contact lens wear” and “Silicone hydrogel 1-day lenses provide the best benefits to my patients” tying for second highest at 92%. All statements regarding patient health (72% to 92%) met the threshold for majority agreement, while statements regarding comfort (88%), patient experience (88% to 93%) and standard of care (72% to 89%) all exceeded the threshold.
“With increasing parameter availability and a wide variety of options in silicone hydrogel 1-day lenses, it is surprising that more ECPs around the world are not prescribing these lenses for their patients,’ Kathy Dumbleton, PhD, MCOptom, FAAO, FBCLA, associate clinical professor at the University of California, Berkley School of Optometry, told PCON. “Hopefully the results from this survey will reassure the ECPs who did not take part in it that their views are similar to their peers and motivate them to recommend and prescribe silicone hydrogel 1-day lenses for more of their patients.” – by Eamon Dreisbach
Disclosures:Orsborn reports he is an employee of CooperVision. Dumbleton reports she is a consultant for Alcon, CooperVision, Johnson & Johnson Vision and VSP.
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