VISTAKON® Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.
Overview
Soft contact lens wearers often struggle to maintain comfortable wear during the entire wearing day,1 and gaps in contact lens performance can result in symptoms significant enough for patients to discontinue contact lens wear.2-4 However, refitting soft contact lens wearers with daily disposable contact lenses improves compliance, ease of use and comfortable wearing time for struggling patients, new research shows. The findings were recently presented at the 2013 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting.
About the Study
611 habitual soft contact lens wearers (habitual lens type: 381 reusable silicone hydrogels, 169 daily disposable hydrogels, and 61 reusable hydrogels) were enrolled in the 1-DAY ACUVUE® TruEye® or 1-DAY ACUVUE® MOIST® Brands Performance Overview (TEMPO) Registry and were refit with 1-DAY ACUVUE® TruEye® (narafilcon B) Brand Contact Lenses or 1-DAY ACUVUE® MOIST® (etafilcon A) Brand Contact Lenses. An 8-item Contact Lens Dry Eye Questionnaire (CLDEQ-8)5 was administered electronically to registry participants at baseline, and at 2 weeks and 4 months following registration. Higher CLDEQ-8 scores indicate more symptoms with lens wear. Wearers’ responses were analyzed for differences at baseline between lens types and for change over time by habitual lens group. Change in CLDEQ-8 score, hours of comfortable wear, ease of use, and compliance with instructions for wear were tested with signed rank, paired t-tests and ANOVA by habitual lens group and new lens brand.
The CLDEQ-8 score improved significantly for all groups at the 2 week survey and remained relatively stable through the 4 months of follow up (baseline mean ranged from 11.6+6.2 for hydrogel daily disposable contact lens wearers to 15.9+7 for reusable hydrogel contact lens wearers). At registration, average CLDEQ-8 scores were in the “good” range of overall opinion, while post-refitting average CLDEQ-8 scores improved to “very good” to “excellent” range of overall opinion.
After soft contact lens wearers were refit with 1-DAY ACUVUE® TruEye® Brand or 1-DAY ACUVUE® MOIST® Brand, study results show that compliance, ease of use and comfortable wearing time improved. More than 90 percent of newly refit daily disposable wearers rated their compliance as “excellent” or “very good” after 4 months of wear, regardless of habitual contact lens type, and 96 percent of registry participants found
1-DAY ACUVUE® TruEye® or 1-DAY ACUVUE® MOIST® to be “extremely easy” or “very easy” to use.
In addition, at baseline, daily disposable lens wearers rated their compliance and ease of use with habitual daily disposable lenses significantly higher than reusable lens wearers (Compliance: 86% vs. 62%, p<0.0001; Ease of Use: 93% vs. 60% “Excellent/Very good”, p<0.0001)
Although average total wearing times went unchanged, the amount of uncomfortable wearing time (average hours minus comfortable hours) decreased by 50 percent for most treatment arms after refit. Switching from one hydrogel daily disposable to another hydrogel daily disposable had no effect on the duration of comfortable wear.
“The study demonstrates that daily disposables can offer a more comfortable, compliant, and user-friendly wearing experience to patients experiencing challenges with their soft contact lenses,” says study Principal Investigator Robin L. Chalmers, O.D., Clinical Trial Consultant. “The study results suggest that the 1-DAY ACUVUE® TruEye® and 1-DAY ACUVUE® MOIST® daily disposable lenses may be good choices to help address patients’ problems with their habitual lenses and to help struggling patients have a more comfortable wearing experience.”
The study was sponsored by VISTAKON® Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.
Source: Chalmers, RL, Hickson-Curran, S, Keay, L, Gleason, B, Albright, R, “Struggle with Soft Contact Lens Wear Addressed by Refitting with Daily Disposable Lenses.”
ACUVUE®, 1-DAY ACUVUE® MOIST®, 1-DAY ACUVUE® TruEye® and VISTAKON® are trademarks of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.
References:
- Riley C, Young G, Chalmers R. Prevalence of ocular surface symptoms, signs, and uncomfortable hours of wear in contact lens wearers: the effect of refitting with daily-wear silicone hydrogel lenses (senofilcon a). Eye Contact Lens 2006 Dec;32(6):281-6.
- Chalmers RL, Hunt C. Hickson-Curran S, Young G. Struggle with hydrogel CL wear increases with age in young adults. Cont Lens Ant Eye 2009 32(3)113-9.
- Richdale K, Sinnott LT, Skadahl E, Nichols JJ. Frequency of and factors associated with contact lens dissatisfaction and discontinuation. Cornea 2007;26:168-74.
- Chalmers RL, Long B, Dillehay SD, Begley CG. Improving contact-lens related dryness symptoms with silicone hydrogel lenses. Optom Vis Sci 2008 85(8):778-84.
- Chalmers RL, Begley CG, Moody K, Hickson-Curran S. Contact Lens Dry Eye Questionnaire-8 and overall opinion of contact lenses. Optom Vis Sci 2012 89(10):1435-42.