Prevalence, habits and outcomes of using contact lenses among medical students

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence, reasons of use, reported hygienic practices, and complications related to CLs’ usage, and to assess awareness of medical students about CLs’ hygienic behaviours, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was done. A multi-stage stratified random sampling was utilized to select 536 medical students. A validated, self-administered, anonymous questionnaire was used. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. RESULTS: The prevalence of current users of CLs was 40.5%. Females reported significantly much higher prevalence of usage compared to males (OR=8.38; 95% CI:5.2-13.3). Second-year students, and those living in university dormitory had the highest prevalence of CLs usage compared to others. The commonest reason for wearing CLs was cosmetic purpose. Improper CLs-hygienic practices were reported; as exceeding the period required for renewal (45.6%), sharing lenses (16.6%), and sleeping (29.9%), swimming (24.6%) or showering (29.0%) with CLs. Only 16.6% of the participants cleaned their lenses daily. At least one CLs’ related complications was reported by 30.4% of the users. Acute red eye (19.8%), conjunctivitis (18.9%), and corneal abrasion (8.3%) were the commonest CLs’ complications. CONCLUSION: A relatively high prevalence of CLs’ usage was found. Participants were aware about CLs-hygienic practices. However, unhygienic CLs-related practices and complications were also reported. Provision of educational messages and training on sound CLs’ hygienic practices are needed.