Survey of contact lens-wearing habits and attitudes toward methods of refractive correction: 2002 versus 2004

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to measure patient attitudes toward methods of refractive correction among cross-sectional populations of contact lens wearers in 2002 and 2004 at the School of Optometry contact lens clinic at Indiana University. We also assessed the role of age and gender on these attitudes. Methods. Attitudes toward methods of refractive correction were surveyed among 349 consecutive contact lens wearers in the spring of 2002 and compared with surveyed attitudes among 99 contact lens wearers in the winter of 2004. The 23 questions in the survey queried attitudes on the health and safety, cost, and interest in methods of refractive correction in addition to questions about the wearing schedule for the subjects' current contact lenses (CL). Refractive methods that were compared included glasses, daily wear CL (DW), 7-day extended wear (EW) CL, 30-day continuous wear (CW) CL, LASIK, and orthokeratology (OK). The proportion of answers citing agree or strongly agree were combined and analyzed by chi-squared tests comparing the results for stratified groups in the previous and the current survey. The groups were stratified by gender and age over of under 30 years. Significance level was set at p <= 0.05. Results. In the 2004 survey, the age of the subjects was significantly younger. Subjects' interest in EW increased significantly in 2004 (59% vs. 45% with high level of interest 2004 vs. 2002, respectively; p = 0.015) and the proportion of subjects reporting overnight wear increased significantly (DW = 58% vs. 69% 2004 vs. 2002, p = 0.0017, controlling for age and gender). In 2004, glasses and EW CL were rated as more healthy compared with 2002 (glasses 95% vs. 88%, p = 0.05; EW CL 48% vs. 34%, p = 0.005). Males are now less likely in 2004 to rate EW as healthy compared with females (38% vs. 53%, p = 0.01). In the 2004 survey, subjects over age 30 were significantly less interested in LASIK compared with those under age 30 (59% vs. 33%, p = 0.02) and less interested than they were in 2002. Conclusions. In the 2004 survey, significantly more subjects reported overnight lens wear, an increased interest in, and opinion of overnight wear as a healthy method of refractive correction compared with the 2002 survey. There was some dampening of enthusiasm for LASIK among subjects over 30 years of age in the 2004 survey. Age and gender can influence attitudes toward refractive correction, with females in this sample showing the most change over time, most probably as a result of different health information sources used by various demographic groups.