There is concern that the number of patients who use both prescription and over-the-counter（ OTC） eye drops to relieve symptoms of dry eye（ e.g., eye strain and dryness） has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic due to further prolonged use of PCs and smartphones since the introduction of telework. As yet, no study has demonstrated a relationship between prolonged visual display terminal（ VDT） work, medication instructions for eye drops, and the actual use of OTC drugs and cases of concomitant use. Therefore, we conducted a survey of 800 patients aged 20～39 years who were treating dry eye with eye drops and investigated the actual use of eye drops. Dry eye treatment was classified into three groups: “OTC-drug-only treatment group”, “prescription-drug-only treatment group”, and “combined OTC- and prescription-drug group”. Factors related to eye drop use in each group were identified by multinomial logistic regression analysis and differences between groups were evaluated by significance tests. There was a significant association of “Wearing contact lenses”, “long average daily VDT work time”, and “never received instuction from a health care professional on the correct use of eye drops” , “long dry eye duration” and “have asked a health care professional about the correct use of eye drops” with the combined use of prescription and OTC medications. The findings suggested that among patients using OTC drugs, there may be patients who should be actively recommended to see a doctor about their symptoms, and that the duration of dry eye disease and treatment history would be useful information for triage by pharmacists.

View full abstract