Purpose:
To estimate the prevalence and risk factors of dry eye disease (DED) in a rural setting in Japan.
Methods:
Three thousand two hundred and ninety-four subjects, aged 40 years or older who were in the residential registry for Koumi Town were recruited in this study. Clinically diagnosed DED was defined as the presence of a previous clinical diagnosis of DED by ophthalmologists or severe symptoms of DED (presence of both dryness and irritation constantly or often). Current symptoms of DED and possible risk factors such as age, gender, educational history, smoking (current smoker or none), alcohol drinking (current drinker or none), height and weight, visual display terminal (VDT) or contact lens (CL) use, and past/current history of certain common systemic diseases were the main outcome measures. We used logistic regression analysis to examine associations between DED and other demographic factors.
Results:
Of the 3,294 eligible residents, 2,791 residents (85%) completed the questionnaire. The percentage of women with a composite outcome of clinically diagnosed DED or severe symptoms (21.6%) was higher than that of men (12.5%) (p value < 0.001). A low body mass index (BMI), CL use, and past/current history of hypertension (HT) were risk factors for DED in men, where VDT use, CL use, past/current history of myocardial infarction or angina were the risk factors, whereas high BMI was a preventive factor for DED in women.
Conclusions:
Dry eye disease leading to a clinical diagnosis or severe symptoms is prevalent among Japanese. CL use was a common dry eye risk factor in both genders. The condition is more prevalent in males with low BMI, past/current history of HT, and in females with a past/current history of myocardial infarction or angina and VDT use. Relevant measures directed against the modifiable risks may provide a positive impact on public health and quality of life of Japanese.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: risk factor assessment • cornea: tears/tear film/dry eye