Dry eye prevalence and main risk factors among undergraduate students in Brazil

Abstract

Purpose : Dry Eye is a common, complex and multifactorial ocular surface (OS) and tear film`s disease that results in discomfort and visual disturbance. Prevalence rates have broad variation and are mostly based on studies involving older populations. This study aims to evaluate dry eye among a sample of undergraduate students from 2 universities in Brazil, to comprehend symptoms, clinical signs and most commonly associated risk factors

Methods : This ongoing cross-sectional survey has included 1,663 of 19,152 students from UNICAMP and 491 of 720 UNIFESP's medical students. Three fields of knowledge were included:1,119 from biological; 689 from exact; and 346 from human area. All participants completed self-applicable questionnaires about dry eye symptoms: Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and short questionnaire used in the Women Heath Study (WHS), both previously translated and validated to Portuguese. Indeed, a list of risk factors such as contact lens wear, medications, ocular surgery and systemic disease associated to dry eye was presented. Participants who fulfilled criteria for dry eye symptoms underwent a complete clinical evaluation for signs of the disease including, non-invasive objective assessment of the OS (tear meniscus height, hyperemia, non-invasive tear break up time and meibography), OS staining with fluorescein and lissamine green and Schirmer test

Results : 2,154 participants aged 22.5±6.8 years old, 55.9% female and 44.1% male. OSDI score was 19.4±16.2; 34.4% had OSDI scores for dry eye and according to WHS 23.4% presented severe symptoms and/or previous history of clinical diagnosis. Dry eye prevalence is different in both sexes, according OSDI scores 42.6% women and 24.0% men and with WHS 27.1% women and 18.5% men. Most common risk factors were visual display use(50.1%), less than 6 hours of sleep/day(37.0%), oral contraceptive use(21.9%), contact lens wear(16.3%) and antiallergic use(15.1%). Clinical evaluation demonstrated mild signs of OS dysfunction and evaporative dry eye, such as meibomian gland dropout and tear film instability

Conclusions : Dry eye was prevalent condition among undergraduate students. In this Brazilian youth sample, rates were higher than data recently published, that showed in the general Brazilian population over 40 years old, the overall rate was 12.8%. However, further investigation might be addressed to better understand related risk factors and clinical presentation

This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.