The epidemiology of dry eye disease

Abstract

Abstract Purpose: The goals of the Epidemiology Subcommittee of the 2007 Dry Eye WorkShop were to evaluate and present knowledge on the epidemiology of dry eye disease, to summarize dry eye risk factors and and to review and assess dry eye questionnaires. Methods: Review of the published English language literature of dry eye epidemiologic and clinical studies which included dry eye questionnaires and which used rigorous methods was performed. Dry eye questionnaires were required to have been used in clinical trials or epidemiologic studies, undergone psychometric evaluation and be publically available. Results: Based on large epidemiologic studies, the age‐specific prevalence of dry eye ranges from 5 to 35%. Different operational definitions of dry eye are likely to be responsible for some of the disparity between studies. There are very little data on the natural history and incidence of dry eye. The public health importance of dry eye is heightened by the high proportion of older people affected and the aging of the world population. Dry eye can have a deleterious impact on ocular and general heath and quality of life and visual function. Both direct and indirect costs exist for dry eye. Major risk factors for dry eye include age, female sex, certain medications and diseases, incisional refractive surgery, nutritional intake of essential fatty acids and disturbance in sex hormones due to a variety of causes. Conclusions: There is a need to expand epidemiological studies to more geographic regions, to include multiple races /ethnicities and to establish a consensus on diagnostic criteria for epidemiological studies. Dry eye questionnaires should be responsive, reproducible, with a specified recall period, validated and appropriate for the use. Vision targeted quality of life and prevention strategies warrant further study.