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What is the willingness to pay for soft toric contact lenses?

Ashton Morgan, John Whitehead and Philip Morgan report on a recently published peer review paper in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye by the same authors that presents an economic analysis of the benefits of soft toric contact lenses

The use of soft toric contact lenses is widespread in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom but this is not a universal trend. Previous work has shown that around 45% of people require an astigmatic correction of 0.75DC (ie a clinically significant amount) in one or both eyes2 and when soft lens fits are scrutinised in the UK, the fitting rate is at about this level.3-5

This is not the case worldwide4 and it seems that these variations are unlikely to be attributable to ethnic differences in the level of astigmatism.6,7 A range of factors could account for reduced rates of soft toric lens prescribing, including the clinical competence, educational background and communication skills of the prescribing practitioner.

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