title: Common symptoms of Nepalese soft contact lens wearers: A pilot study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the common symptoms in current soft contact lens (CL) wearers and their association with other factors among Nepalese population.
  
  
  METHODS
  All the current CL wearers who started to wear soft CL in Nepal Eye Hospital between July 2007 and June 2012 were invited for the participation. Frequency of the ten most common symptoms, divided into never, occasionally, frequently and consistent were recorded. Association between degree of symptoms with other factors, e.g. age, gender, profession, cigarette smoking, ethnicity, level of education and duration and wearing modality of CL wear were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 129 subjects participated in this study, 67% were female; the mean age of the subjects was 23.9±4.3 years. Ninety seven percent of them had at least one symptom occasionally or frequently or consistently. Discomfort was found in 88.4% of the total subjects. Other common symptoms were foreign body sensation in 73.6%, redness in 65.9%, reduced wearing time in 63.6% and dryness in 62.8%. Symptoms were found occasionally in the majority of subjects. Degree of symptoms was not associated with age, gender, profession, education status, ethnicity of subjects and duration or modality of lens wear (p>0.05) but was positively associated with passive cigarette smoking (p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Almost all of the Nepalese soft CL wearers had some types of symptoms at least occasionally. Discomfort was the most common symptom. Degree of symptoms was associated with the passive smoking but not with other factors like age, sex, profession and duration of lens wear.
authors: Department of Physics, School of Science, University of Minho, Gualtar, Braga, Portugal. Electronic address: kishorsapkota@gmail.com.
authors: Kishor
authors: K
authors: Sapkota
authors: IOBA Institute, University of Valladolid, Spain.
authors: Raul
authors: R
authors: Martin
authors: Department of Physics, School of Science, University of Minho, Gualtar, Braga, Portugal.
authors: Sandra
authors: S
authors: Franco
authors: Department of Physics, School of Science, University of Minho, Gualtar, Braga, Portugal.
authors: Madalena
authors: M
authors: Lira
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003263:Contact Lenses, Hydrophilic / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015352:Dry Eye Syndromes / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D015817:Eye Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D058447:Eye Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007634:Keratitis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D009390:Nepal / Q000453:epidemiology; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011537:Pruritus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Contact lens discontinuation; Discomfort; Dry eye; Lentes de contacto blandas; Malestar; Nepal; Ojo seco; Soft contact lens; Supresión de las lentes de contacto