Six-Month Evaluation of Extended-Wear Soft Contact Lenses among Armored Troops. Part 2. Subjective Responses by Patients.

摘要

This report addresses subjective patient responses to wearing contact lenses in an operational military environment. Male volunteers in an armored division wore extended-wear soft contact lenses (SCLs) or spectacles for up to 6 months, participating fully in their units' normal activities. Responding to end-of-study questionnaires, most of the SCL wearers felt they could see better with their SCLs than with spectacles. The great majority indicated contact lenses had improved their overall job performance, preferring SCLs for a variety of military activities. SCL-related environmental difficulties were reported frequently for conditions involving dust, wind, and smoke, while spectacle-related problems were common especially in the case of rain, dust, hot weather, and high humidity. Problems reported with handling and cleaning corrective lenses were substantially more common among spectacle wearers than among SCL wearers. Keywords: Contact lenses; Military environments;Vision correction; Performance impact. (EG)