Factors That Influence the Success of Contact Lens Fitting in Presbyopes: A Multicentric Survey

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the key factors behind successful and unsuccessful wear of contact lenses (CLs) for patients with presbyopia. METHOD: A multicenter survey was conducted using a questionnaire, in eight CL centers, among two groups of presbyopes: successful wearers (SWs), who were presbyopic and wearing CLs successfully, and unsuccessful wearers (UWs), who tried unsuccessfully to wear CLs to manage their presbyopia and had stopped wearing CLs. RESULTS: A total of 237 completed questionnaires were returned; 178 from SWs and 59 from UWs. Successful wearers used CLs 5.8±1.5 days a week and additional reading spectacles were never used by half of the SWs. Among SWs, the most important reason to continue wearing CLs was convenience (61%), whereas among UWs, the most important reason to discontinue wearing CLs was poor vision (80%). A logistic regression analysis showed that the absence of astigmatism (P<0.05), a higher subjective satisfaction (P<0.05), a better subjective perceived vision at distance (P<0.01), and a lower subjective loss of visual contrast (P<0.05) were able to predict the success of CL use for presbyopia. CONCLUSIONS: This study explores the predictors for determining successful or unsuccessful CL wear in presbyopes. Among ophthalmic, demographic, lifestyle, and subjective variables, the latter seems to be of greater importance in determining the success of CL wear. Therefore, it is necessary that subjective variables are taken into account by the CL practitioner when approaching presbyopic CL fitting in practice.