Abstract
Purpose :
The purpose of this analysis was to determine if the Standard Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness (SPEED) questionnaire is able to similarly detect dry eye in both contact lens (CL) and non-contact lens wearers (NCL).
Methods :
This was a cross-sectional study open to all participants who attended the American Academy of Optometry’s 2015 annual meeting in New Orleans, LA. All subjects were administered a study-specific demographics survey that also asked about self-reported dry eye status and the SPEED questionnaire. Tear meniscus height (TMH) was photographically assessed (OCULUS keratograph 5M) and tear volume (Zone-QuickTM Phenol Red Thread) was evaluated. Subjects were then classified as having dry eye if they had two or more positive dry eye tests (self-reported dry eye, TMH, tear volume). SPEED scores in CL and NCL wearers were then compared to dry eye status to determine the SPEED questionnaire’s ability to detect dry eye.
Results :
A diverse group (67.6% white, 2.5% black, 25.0% Asian, 4.9% other) of CL (n = 150) and NCL (n = 134) wearers were recruited. The mean ± SD age of the CL and NCL wearers was 34.5 ± 12.6 years and 40.6 ± 15.1 years, respectively. The population was predominantly female (61.4% female), and a large portion of the CL (58.3%) and NCL (41.8%) self-reported dry eye. The mean SPEED scores (CL = 7.5 ± 4.7; NCL = 7.3 ± 5.0) and tear volumes (CL = 4.34 ± 5.08 mm; NCL = 3.93 ± 3.80 mm) were not significantly different between groups (p > 0.05), yet TMHs (CL = 0.22 ± 0.11 mm, NCL = 0.27 ± 0.12 mm) were significantly lower in the CL group (p = 0.0004). The SPEED scores were found to be associated with dry eye status in NCL wearers (r = 0.35, p <0.001) but not CL wearers (r = 0.12, p = 0.13).
Conclusions :
Meeting attendees easily completed the SPEED questionnaire. While the SPEED questionnaire was able to predict the dry eye status of NCL wearers, it was unable to predict the dry eye status of a CL wearer in this sample. Additional work should be done to assess the usefulness of the SPEED questionnaire in CL-wearing populations.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.