Will young children comply and follow instructions to successfully wear soft contact lenses?

Abstract

We fit eighty-five children between the ages of 11 years and 13 years, 11 months with soft contact lenses to study safety of soft contact lens wear in children. We report the results at 6 months of a 3 year longitudinal study. Contact lens care compliance, a critical factor in successful lens wear, was evaluated using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by 74 subjects at dispensing and at 1-week and 6-months post-dipensing visits. Subjects found contact lens removal to be the easiest and lens insertion the most difficult procedures. After 6 months, 85% of the children correctly identified the purpose of lens care solutions, 90% knew that daily cleaning was necessary, 96% understood lens disinfection, and 99% expressed confidence in their ability to care for their lenses.