Patterns of Use and Knowledge about Contact Lens Wear amongst Teenagers in Rural Areas in Malaysia

Bariah Mohd-Ali and Xuan Li Tan
Additional contact information
Bariah Mohd-Ali: Optometry and Vision Science Program, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 50300, Malaysia
Xuan Li Tan: Faculty of Optometry and Vision Sciences, SEGI University, Petaling Jaya, Selangor 47810, Malaysia

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-7

Abstract: Background: Contact lenses (CLs) are more popular than spectacles for vision correction amongst the youth. Knowledge about the risks of wearing CLs is critical especially for those with poor access to public health education. This study investigates the patterns of use and level of knowledge about CL wear amongst teenagers living in rural areas in Selangor, Malaysia using a set of validated questionnaires. Methods: A total of 8500 self-administered questionnaires were distributed in eight selected secondary schools. The results were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 2474 (29%) completed questionnaires were collected. The mean age of the respondents was 14.8 ± 1.5 years, and approximately 7.2% were CL wearers. The majority of the wearers were females (76.0%) and wore soft CLs (92.2%). Cosmetic purposes (58.1%) and comfort (24.6%) were the main reasons for wearing CLs. Many of the respondents purchased their lenses from optical shops (50.1%) and beauty accessory shops (15.6%), and approximately 10% did not disinfect their lenses properly. Regarding knowledge about CL care, approximately 56% of the respondents responded correctly. Conclusion: Half of the respondents do not have sufficient knowledge about the risks of wearing CLs. Thus, aggressive public health education aimed at teenagers is needed to prevent improper CL usage.

Keywords: contact lens; teenagers; knowledge; prevalence; rural (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/24/5161/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/24/5161/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:24:p:5161-:d:298931

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().