Comparison of the Usability of Eye Drop Aids and the Conventional Bottle.

Gali Brand,Idan Hecht,Oriel Spierer,Asaf Achiron,Duncan Leadbetter,Zvia Burgansky-Eliash,Liron Naftali Ben Haim

doi:10.3390/jcm10235658

Abstract

(1) Background: Eye drops are the most common route of administration for ophthalmic medications. Administering drops can be a major hurdle for patients, potentially resulting in noncompliance and treatment failure. The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy and safety of two different aids and the conventional bottle for eye drop instillation; (2) Methods: An interventional crossover study involving standard eye drop bottle, Opticare aid and Autodrop aid. The study included healthy subjects without a history of regular eye drop use; (3) Results: Twenty-six subjects were enrolled. Of those subjects, 96% and 92% were able to assemble the eye drop bottle into the Autodrop and the Opticare aids, respectively. Subjective assessment indicated that Autodrop was significantly easier to assemble than Opticare (95% CI: −1.6802 to −0.1659, p = 0.02). When using either aid, there was no contamination of the bottle tip, which occurred in 46% of subjects when no aid was used (p = 0.0005). Fewer drops were expelled when using the conventional bottle as compared to the aids (p = 0.05 compared to Autodrop, p = 0.1 compared to Opticare); (4) Conclusions: Autodrop and Opticare can assist patients with eye drop placement. These aids completely prevented bottle tip contamination, which was frequently observed when the conventional bottle was used alone.

Highlights

Eye drops are by far the most common route of administration for medications to treat ophthalmic diseases
We reviewed the literature and constructed the questionnaire based on previous reports on eye drop aids
More than 90% of the subjects were able to assemble the eye drops bottle into the aid; the patients found the bottle was more assembled in the Autodrop than in the Opticare

Summary

Introduction

Eye drops are by far the most common route of administration for medications to treat ophthalmic diseases. Most drops are supplied in a small plastic bottle that is designed for direct instillation into the eye. The ability of patients to use eye drops independently and successfully can present a major challenge, potentially leading to noncompliance and treatment failure [1,2,3]. Noncompliance may occur due to difficulty with accurate eye drop instillation or fear of self-injury during attempted administration [2]. Ophthalmic diseases are more prevalent in the elderly population, where additional comorbidities such as hand tremor, arthritis, poor coordination and peripheral neuropathy present additional challenges to successful eye drop administration [2,7]. Poor adherence to treatment can lead to disease progression and visual deterioration, potentially warranting invasive treatments such as periocular injections or surgery [8], with the associated to disease progression and visual deterioration, potentially warranting invasive treatments such as periocular injections or surgery [8], with the associated economic costs [9]

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Results

Conclusion