Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2020

This year marks a quarter of a century of our attempt to characterise the British contact lens market in terms of the types of lenses prescribed by eye care practitioners.^1-24 Such information is not generally available so this work intends to inform practitioners, students, researchers and industry alike about the current lens and solution choices made across the country. Since 1996, we have collected detailed information on over 25,000 UK contact lens fits.

Of course, 2020 has been an unusual year for contact lens practice with the Covid-19 lockdown during the second quarter of the year. Most of the responses from this work are received before the end of March and so although this year’s report features a smaller number of lens fits (731) than in recent times, the response is comfortably sufficient for meaningful conclusions to be drawn.