U.S. Youth Perceptions of Eyeglasses and Contact Lenses

Abstract

Purpose : Uncorrected Refractive Error (URE) among youth is associated with decreased school performance and productivity. We aimed to investigate youth experiences with glasses and contacts, as prior experiences with refractive correction are potential facilitators or barriers to correcting URE.

Methods : A five-question survey including open-ended questions about experiences with refractive correction was sent to the MyVoice Text Message Cohort of U.S. youth aged 14–24 years (www.hearmyvoicenow.org). Responses were coded by two team members independently using a modified grounded theory approach, and disagreements in coding were resolved by consensus.

Results : In total, 1063 participants out of 1204 responded (88.3%). The mean age of participants was 20.3 ± 2.4 years (range 15-24 years); 32.5% (n=346) were female; and 74.0% (n=787) were white. Nearly two thirds (65.8%; n=699) had experienced trouble with their eyesight, and 63.6% (n=676) had worn glasses and/or contacts. Some (31.7%, n=337) discussed a preference for glasses or contacts; of those, 83.7% (n=282) preferred glasses and 16.3% (n=55) preferred contacts. The most common reasons for preferring glasses were problems with contacts (12.8%, n=36, e.g. “I wear glasses because I cannot put contacts in for the life of me”) and convenience (4.3%, n=12, e.g. “I still wear my glasses because I think they're less work than contacts”). The most common reasons for preferring contacts were convenience (16.4%, n=9, e.g. “I wear corrective contacts so I can avoid the hassle of having glasses”), problems with glasses (12.7%, n=7, e.g. “I wear both, mostly contacts day to day because with masks they don't fog up like glasses do”), cosmesis (10.9%, n=6, e.g. “If I’m being active or planning on wearing makeup I’ll wear my contacts”) and preference for wearing contacts for sports (10.9%, n=6, e.g. “I do wear both, mostly contacts so that I can go swimming with ease”).

Conclusions : Glasses may be more popular than contact lenses among U.S. youth. Future work should address youth barriers to glasses to improve access to refractive correction.

This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.