Abstract
Background: The use of contact Lenses (CL) is becoming more popular among young people especially the females. However, if CL are not handled properly, they may be associated with vision threatening complications like the microbial keratitis. Proper knowledge about CL is important for minimizing the CL related complications.
Objective: To assess the perception and knowledge of CL among female undergraduates in Hafr Al-Batin city.
Methods: This questionnaire based survey was conducted on 335 undergraduate female students from four colleges of Hafr Al-Batin University. Sixteen students who failed to provide completely filled questionnaire were excluded from this study.
Results: In this study 273 (81.5%) participants reported that they were using currently and/or had used CL before either for correcting the refractive error (RE) or for cosmetic purposes. Soft type and monthly disposable CL were the most commonly used. Sufficient knowledge about CL was demonstrated by 71.7% of the participants. Personal history of RE and educational institution had significant influence on the level of CL knowledge. While 65.4% reported that CL give more natural appearance, 70.4% believed that CL require extra care. Red eye was the commonest complication reported by CL users (39.6%). Most of participants (58.3%) preferred to remove the CL whenever complications occurred without consultation of a medical practitioner. Only about 40% of the participants had an idea about the CL over wear syndrome. Healthcare personnel were the most common sources of knowledge about CL (in 35% participants).
Conclusion: Although the overall knowledge about the contact lenses among undergraduates from Hafr Al-Batin city is satisfactory, there is still a need for improving the awareness about the complications of CL and their prevention and treatment.