Contact Lens Spectrum Supplements

Special Edition 2016

Contact Lens Spectrum

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C O N T A C T L E N S S P E C T R U M S P E C I A L E D I T I O N 2 0 1 6 c l s p e c t r u m . c o m 6 RESEARCH REVIEW S. B A R RY E I D E N, O D, FA AO CURRENT RESEARCH ON CONTACT LENS COMFORT W e live in a digital world. More than 1.9 billion people utilize mobile digital devices and more than 1.7 billion use desktop devices globally, reports Smart Insights mobile marketing consul- tants. Furthermore, the median number of hours U.S. adults spend on digital devices, 5.6 hours, has more than doubled since 2008. And, The Vision Council's Digital Eyestrain Report 2016 revealed that 33% of chil- dren use a digital device for 3 or more hours each day; 73% of adults younger than 30 experience digital eyestrain symptoms; and 90% of patients do not talk with their eyec- are provider about digital device use. We know there is a relationship between digital device use and ocu- lar symptomatology, most notably, reduced contact lens-wearing com- fort associated with the use of such devices. Let's explore what current research is telling us about this rela- tionship, and, potentially, what can be done to improve our patient's contact lens-wearing experience. Blink Rate and Near Tasks A research study (Argiles et al, 2015) evaluated blink rates and the percentage of incomplete blinks found with near tasks performed with hard-copy materials and elec- tronic displays. The study evaluated spontaneous eye blink rate (SEBR) and percentage of incomplete blinks in different hard-copy and visual dis- play terminal (VDT) reading con- ditions, compared with baseline conditions. Researchers found that all reading conditions resulted in a decrease in SEBR when compared with baseline conditions (all P < 0.001). The percentage of incom- plete blinks increased when reading on an electronic platform, in contrast to hard-copy text. They concluded that the high cognitive demands as- sociated with a reading task led to a A published review evaluated the outcomes of numerous research papers that investigated the impact of tear film abnormalities on visual performance (Montes-Mico, 2007). The author confirms that the optical quality of the human eye is dynamic and is affected by the tear film. In- creasing aberrations are induced by post-blink tear-layer changes and may, in part, limit the improvements in visual performance that might be achievable with customized aberra- tion corrections from surgical or op- tically optimized treatments. Studies show that computerized topography of the air-tear film interface can change significantly during the time in which videokeratoscope images are typically acquired. From these results, wavefront aberrometry could be used as a noninvasive technique for tear break-up time measure- ment. (Montes-Mico et al, Ophthal- mology, 2004; Montes-Mico et al., Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 2004). What About Contact Lenses? A published study evaluated the effect of CL wear and VDT work on the ocular surface and tear func- tions (Kojima et al, 2001). Sixty- nine CL wearers and 102 age- and sex-matched non-CL wearers were enrolled in the study. Ocular sur- face and tear function tests, in- cluding vital staining (fluorescein and rose bengal), Schirmer's test, reduction in SEBR, irrespective of the reading platform. However, only electronic reading resulted in an increase in the percentage of incom- plete blinks. The authors also refer- enced other studies (Chu et al, 2014; Hirota et al, 2013) which suggested that ocular discomfort experienced by computer users may be associated with an increase in the percentage of incomplete blinks, rather than with an actual reduction in SEBR. Another study evaluated blink parameters and tear stability among adapted soft contact lens (CL) wear- ers who were performing tasks that required varying amounts of visual concentration (Jansen et al, 2010). This study found that during tasks requiring concentration, the inter- blink interval increased, blink rate decreased, and symptoms of ocular irritation increased. Visual Performance Digital device use also has a signif- icant impact on visual performance. W e k n o w t h e r e i s a r e l a t i o n s h i p b e t w ee n t h e u s e o f d i g i t a l d e v i c e s a n d o c u la r s y m p to m a tol o gy . U F P. 0 2 5 9 . U S A . 1 6 Continued on p.18

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