Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2006

In his report of the 11th annual Eurolens Research survey into prescribing habits, Dr Philip Morgan looks at the surge in silicone hydrogel fitting for daily wear

The pfd for this feature is currently unavailable

The 11th annual survey into UK contact lens prescribing was conducted between January and March 2006.1-10 The same format as previous years was employed. One thousand practitioners (700 optometrists and 300 dispensing opticians who fit contact lenses) were selected at random from the GOC register.

A questionnaire with reply-paid envelope was sent to this group who were asked to provide details of the first 10 patients fitted with contact lenses after receipt of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was specifically designed to be straightforward to complete while capturing the key information about the patients.

Practitioners were asked some questions about themselves, and for each contact lens fit, they were requested to complete the details about the following: date of fitting, new fit or refit, age and sex of patient, lens material, lens design, frequency of replacement, times per week of wear, modality (daily or extended wear) and care system.

Completed questionnaires were received from 119 practitioners (45 dispensing opticians, 72 optometrists and two ‘not recorded’) providing information on 1,088 contact lens fits. Each fit was given a weighting based on the number of lenses fitted per year by the practitioner (based on the date information on the form). This means that fits by practitioners conducting many contact lens fits were afforded a higher weighting than those performing fewer fits. The mean (±SD) age for the contact lens fits reported was 36.7 ± 14.7 years with an age range of nine to 84 years.

This average age is slightly higher than previous years. In common with previous years, two in three contact lens fits (63 per cent) were to females.