More BrandsMany eye care professionals believe that daily disposable contact lenses (DDCL) offer the best solution for contact lens wearers. DDCLs eliminate the need for cleaning and disinfecting, offering the best in comfort with the least effort. However, many contact lens wearers disregard the most important thing about DDCLs, in that they have to be thrown away at the end of the day.
This has been established through an international study led by researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. They worked alongside colleagues from the UK, Australia and Norway to investigate compliance rates among DDCL wearers. The study involved 805 participants from the US, the UK, Australia and Norway. The findings of the research team were published in Contact Lens & Anterior Eye, the journal of the British Contact Lens Association.
Through the analysis of online and paper-based questionnaires, the researchers established that 9% of the subjects did not comply with the guidelines for DDCL wear. This means that they did not remove the lenses and dispose of them at the end of the day. The non-compliance rate was highest among Australian respondents, 18% of whom admitted to ignoring recommendations. The respective rates for the US, the UK and Norway were 12%, 7% and 4%.
When asked about the reason for wearing their DDCLs longer, the majority of subjects (60%) said they did it to save money. But any potential savings will come at the expense of comfort, as the study showed. DDCL re-use was found to reduce comfort both at insertion and removal of the contacts in the case of non-compliant subjects.
