Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2013
For the 18th consecutive year, Professor Philip Morgan reports on the Eurolens Research survey into the prescribing habits of British contact lens practitioners.
Background
According to the Association of Contact Lens Manufacturers, there are about 3.7 million contact lens wearers in the United Kingdom, a number which is remained fairly stable over recent years. Of interest to optometrists, opticians and the industry generally are the types of lenses prescribed in order that we can track the success or otherwise of innovations in lens designs, material types and replacement modalities. Since 1996, we have tracked generic (non-branded) information about the lenses and solutions prescribed in the UK1-17 and this paper outlines our findings for 2013.
In order to generate our data, at the start of each calendar year, we write to 1,000 registered practitioners (700 optometrists and 300 contact lens opticians randomly selected from the GOC register) with an A4 questionnaire. We request data about the following: date of fitting, new fit or refit, age and sex of patient, lens material, lens design, frequency of replacement, days per week of wear, modality (daily or extended wear) and care system.
This year we received information about 781 contact lens fits from 56 contact lens opticians, 27 optometrists and one undefined practitioner. The mean patient age at fitting was 36.7 years, a value which may be higher than generally appreciated. This value is much higher for patients fitted with rigid lenses (48.7 years) compared with those receiving soft lenses (35.6 years). As before females accounted for about two thirds (63 per cent) of lens fits. Twenty three per cent of lenses were prescribed on a part-time (three days per week or fewer).
Rigid vs. soft lens fits
Rigid lenses remain rarely prescribed as a new fit (three per cent) although higher numbers are fitted to existing wearers at 14 per cent (Figure 1).
Soft lens details
Silicone hydrogels remain the material of choice for most soft lenses prescribed; such lenses account for 54 per cent of new soft lens fits. The large increase in the use of these materials since 2002 is shown in Figure 2. Clearly, the rise of silicone hydrogels has been approximately matched by the demise of conventional hydrogel materials used on a non-daily disposable basis. This same figure also confirms the ongoing low prescribing rate of soft lenses for extended wear (four per cent of all lens fits). Also of note is the increase in daily disposable prescribing over recent years, moving from 33 per cent to 44 per cent in the past five years. Some of this increase appears to have been fuelled by the introduction of silicone hydrogel daily disposable lenses. In 2013, 31 per cent of daily disposable lenses were silicone hydrogels, a proportion which has more than doubled in the past five years. By contrast, 83 per cent of monthly-replaced lenses are silicone hydrogels.
Soft toric lenses remain widely prescribed (36 per cent of new fits) and soft multifocals have maintained their recent increase in usage (12 per cent of new soft fits in 2013, double the prescribing rate of five years ago). Solution prescribing is dominated by multi-purpose products (93 per cent).
Rigid lens details
The relatively small number of rigid lens fits means that whilst a detailed breakdown of lens types is of interest, the statistical confidence intervals around each sub-category data point are large, so some caution should be applied when considering individual figures. It is evident that low Dk materials are rarely prescribed and there is evidence for some orthokeratology prescribing.
Acknowledgements
This survey was funded by the sponsors of Eurolens Research: Alcon Vision Care, Bausch & Lomb Incorporated, CooperVision Limited, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Menicon Co. Ltd., Sauflon Pharmaceuticals Limited. The author would like to thank the contact lens practitioners who anonymously participated in this survey.
The author
Dr Philip Morgan is the Director of Eurolens Research at The University of Manchester.
References
1. Morgan PB. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2012. Optician 2012; 246 (6364): 14-15..
2. Morgan PB. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2011. Optician 2011; 242 (6313): 14-15.
3. Morgan PB. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2010. Optician 2010; 239 (6255): 34-35.
4. Morgan PB. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2009. Optician 2009; 238 (6205): 20-21.
5. Morgan PB. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2008. Optician 2008; 235(6154): 18-19.
6. Morgan PB. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2007. Optician 2007; 233(6104): 16-17.
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9. Morgan PB and Efron N. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2004. Optician 2004; 227(5950): 16-17.
10. Morgan PB, Efron N. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2003. Optician 2003; 225 (5904): 34-35.
11. Morgan PB, Efron N. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2002. Optician 2002; 223 (5849): 28-30.
12. Morgan PB and Efron N. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2001. Optician 2002; 221 (5803): 38-39.
13. Morgan PB and Efron N. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2000. Optician 2000; 219 (5749): 22-23.
14. Morgan PB and Efron N. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 1999. Optician 1999; 217 (5700): 43-44.
15. Morgan PB and Efron N. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 1998 Optician 1998; 216 (5679): 18-19.
16. Morgan PB and Efron N. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 1997. Optician 1997; 214 (5630): 32-33.
17. Morgan PB, Ramsdale C and Efron N. Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 1996. Optician 1997; 213 (5583): 35-36.
Figure captions
Figure 1 Major findings from the 2013 survey.
Figure 2 Lens types prescribed, 1997-2013.