Differences in Practitioner Experience, Practice Type, and Profession in Attitudes Toward Growing Contact Lens Practice

Nilesh Thite, Alfredo Desiato, Lakshmi Shinde, James S Wolffsohm, Shehzad A. Naroo, Jacinto Santodomingo Rubido, Pauline Cho, Debbie Jones, Cesar Villa-Collar, Guillermo Carrillo, Osbert Chan, Haiying Wang, Elena Iomdina, Elena Tarutta, Olga Proskurina, Chi Shing Fan, Fabrizio Zeri, May M. Bakkar, Fakhruddin Barodawala, Neeraj DabralEdouard Lafosse, Cheni Lee, Jason Nichols, Jack Chan, Kyounghee Park, Vishakh Nair, Eef van der Worp, Gopi Vankudre, Vinod Maseedupally, Yashaswee Bhattarai, Dimple Nagzarkar, Peter Brauer, Raquel Gil-Cazorla

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective:
To investigate eye care practitioners' attitudes and perceptions toward potential interventions that can enhance contact lens (CL) practice across the world, and how this is influenced by their practice setting.

Methods:
A self-administered, anonymized survey was constructed in English and then forward and backward translated into six more languages. The survey was distributed online via social media platforms and mailing lists involving reputed international professional bodies.

Results:
In total, 2,222 responses from 27 countries with sufficient responses were analyzed (53% females, median age- 37 years). Most of the respondents were optometrists (81.9%) and 47.6% were from stand-alone/independent practices. Median working experience in CL prescribing was 11.0 years (IQR: 18.0, 4–22 years). Over two-third of them declared themselves to be very hopeful (22.9%) or hopeful (45.1%) about the future of their CL practice. Among the potential interventions proposed, continuous update of knowledge and skills and competently managing CL-related complications were rated the most important (median score: 9/10 for each). Practitioners working in national/regional retail chains expressed higher proactivity in recommending CLs (9/10) than those in local chains, hospitals, and universities(for all 8/10, P
Conclusions:
The study provided important information to delineate a variety of elements characterizing CL practice across the world. These insights can serve as a basis to design strategies at national and international levels.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages8
JournalContact and Intraocular Lens Medical Journal
Volume48
Issue number9
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2022

Keywords

  • Contact lens practice
  • Contact lens practitioners
  • Interventions
  • Attitudes

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