A Major Public Health Problem: Uncontrolled Wearing of Contact Lenses

Pur po se: To evaluate the behavior, attitude and point of view of contact lens wearers attending Mersin University. Ma te ri al and Met hod: Our study included students from the Faculty of Medicine whom we assumed to have the highest awareness about health topics and also students from the Faculty of Education whom we expected to have the similar awareness. Considering the total number of students, we calculated the minimum number of students attending the Faculty of Education (n: 213) and the minimum number of students attending the Faculty of Medicine (n: 230) that must be included to the study. Then, we asked the students to answer our questionnaire. Re sults: The mean age of the students attending the study was 21.29±2.14 years, and 62.5% of the participants were female. Among all of the students, 81% were wearing contact lenses to correct their refractive errors and 12% of the students were wearing the contact lenses to enhance appearance for cosmetic reasons. Also, 51% of the students were getting the contact lenses with prescription and the rest of the students without it. Furthermore, 47.3% of the participants had received the basic information about contact lenses from their doctors, while the rest had accessed this information through other sources. 43.9% of the participants were visiting their doctors regularly while wearing contact lenses. Dis cus si on: Serious complications and irreversible visual loss as a result of this serious complications can occur due to contact lens wear. So, we think that contact lenses should not be accepted as simple medical devices. (Turk J Ophthalmol 2012; 42: 84-7