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Patient - practitioner communication and contact lens compliance during a prolonged COVID-19 lockdown.
Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2021 12; 44(6):101433.CL

Abstract

PURPOSE

Ocular manifestations and ocular transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in contact lens (CL) wearers may be fostered by non-compliance with care and maintenance instructions which, in turn, may be aggravated by inadequate patient-practitioner communication. The purpose of this research was to determine CL use, compliance and patient-practitioner communication during a 3-month long COVID-19 lockdown in Spain.

METHODS

An online survey (developed using Google Forms) retrospectively evaluated CL compliance during the 3-month lockdown (responses captured between 15th July and 10th August, 2020), with particular emphasis on patient-practitioner communication, handwashing practices and CL case hygiene and replacement.

RESULTS

A total of 247 responses were collected and analysed. Most participants used monthly replacement soft lenses (64.8 %) and multipurpose solutions (75.7 %), with 86.6 % of them owning a storage case for their lenses. During lockdown, a significant percentage of participants ceased lens wear (28.4 %) or reduced wearing time (49.2 %). Regarding patient-practitioner communication, 54.3 % of respondents received specific instructions, mostly about handwashing (93.3 %) and storage case hygiene (48.5 %). The most frequent non-compliant practices were inadequate handwashing (36.4 %), and overextending monthly or two-weekly replacement lenses (35.2 %). Many respondents never cleaned (23.0 %) nor replaced (16.3 %) their storage case, and 27.8 % of them reported not having been informed about case hygiene by their practitioners.

CONCLUSION

Contact lens compliance, particularly in terms of handwashing and storage case hygiene, was poor during a prolonged COVID-19 lockdown, thus stressing the need to foster patient-practitioner communication strategies to curtail the possibility of ocular transmission and the risk of virus tropism.

Links

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Cardona G
School of Optics and Optometry of Terrassa, Universitat Politècnica De Catalunya, c/Violinista Vellsola, 37, E08222, Terrassa, Spain. Electronic address: genis.cardona@upc.edu.
Alonso S
School of Optics and Optometry of Terrassa, Universitat Politècnica De Catalunya, c/Violinista Vellsola, 37, E08222, Terrassa, Spain.
Busquets A
School of Optics and Optometry of Terrassa, Universitat Politècnica De Catalunya, c/Violinista Vellsola, 37, E08222, Terrassa, Spain.

MeSH

COVID-19Communicable Disease ControlCommunicationContact Lens SolutionsContact Lenses, HydrophilicHumansPatient ComplianceRetrospective StudiesSARS-CoV-2Surveys and QuestionnairesPost-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

33685823

Citation

Cardona, Genis, et al. "Patient - Practitioner Communication and Contact Lens Compliance During a Prolonged COVID-19 Lockdown." Contact Lens & Anterior Eye : the Journal of the British Contact Lens Association, vol. 44, no. 6, 2021, p. 101433.
Cardona G, Alonso S, Busquets A. Patient - practitioner communication and contact lens compliance during a prolonged COVID-19 lockdown. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2021;44(6):101433.
Cardona, G., Alonso, S., & Busquets, A. (2021). Patient - practitioner communication and contact lens compliance during a prolonged COVID-19 lockdown. Contact Lens & Anterior Eye : the Journal of the British Contact Lens Association, 44(6), 101433. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clae.2021.02.019
Cardona G, Alonso S, Busquets A. Patient - Practitioner Communication and Contact Lens Compliance During a Prolonged COVID-19 Lockdown. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2021;44(6):101433. PubMed PMID: 33685823.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Patient - practitioner communication and contact lens compliance during a prolonged COVID-19 lockdown. AU - Cardona,Genis, AU - Alonso,Silvia, AU - Busquets,Anna, Y1 - 2021/03/02/ PY - 2020/08/17/received PY - 2021/02/10/revised PY - 2021/02/28/accepted PY - 2021/3/10/pubmed PY - 2021/12/15/medline PY - 2021/3/9/entrez KW - COVID-19 KW - Contact lens compliance KW - Contact lens storage case KW - Handwashing KW - Patient-practitioner communication SP - 101433 EP - 101433 JF - Contact lens & anterior eye : the journal of the British Contact Lens Association JO - Cont Lens Anterior Eye VL - 44 IS - 6 N2 - PURPOSE: Ocular manifestations and ocular transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in contact lens (CL) wearers may be fostered by non-compliance with care and maintenance instructions which, in turn, may be aggravated by inadequate patient-practitioner communication. The purpose of this research was to determine CL use, compliance and patient-practitioner communication during a 3-month long COVID-19 lockdown in Spain. METHODS: An online survey (developed using Google Forms) retrospectively evaluated CL compliance during the 3-month lockdown (responses captured between 15th July and 10th August, 2020), with particular emphasis on patient-practitioner communication, handwashing practices and CL case hygiene and replacement. RESULTS: A total of 247 responses were collected and analysed. Most participants used monthly replacement soft lenses (64.8 %) and multipurpose solutions (75.7 %), with 86.6 % of them owning a storage case for their lenses. During lockdown, a significant percentage of participants ceased lens wear (28.4 %) or reduced wearing time (49.2 %). Regarding patient-practitioner communication, 54.3 % of respondents received specific instructions, mostly about handwashing (93.3 %) and storage case hygiene (48.5 %). The most frequent non-compliant practices were inadequate handwashing (36.4 %), and overextending monthly or two-weekly replacement lenses (35.2 %). Many respondents never cleaned (23.0 %) nor replaced (16.3 %) their storage case, and 27.8 % of them reported not having been informed about case hygiene by their practitioners. CONCLUSION: Contact lens compliance, particularly in terms of handwashing and storage case hygiene, was poor during a prolonged COVID-19 lockdown, thus stressing the need to foster patient-practitioner communication strategies to curtail the possibility of ocular transmission and the risk of virus tropism. SN - 1476-5411 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/33685823/Patient___practitioner_communication_and_contact_lens_compliance_during_a_prolonged_COVID_19_lockdown_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -