ABSTRACT
Background: Dry eye is recognized as a growing public health problem and one of the most frequent reasons for visiting an ophthalmologist in middle and old age people. Objectives: To the best of our knowledge, very less study has been undertaken in central India on dry eye. The present study was designed to study clinical profile and to evaluate the true prevalence and risk factors of dry eye in central India. Materials and Methods: A total of 1562 participants aged 30 years or more visiting ophthalmology department in a tertiary care rural hospital enrolled in a study. Study duration was 18 months. The study design was a prospective, cross-sectional, and observational study. An ocular surface disease index (OSDI) questionnaire was administered to all participants and individuals with OSDI score greater than 12 were further evaluated with dry eye tests in sequence of tear break-up time, lissamine green staining, Schirmer-1 test, and slit-lamp examination for meibomian gland dysfunction. The participants with OSDI Score ≥13 were diagnosed to be having dry eye. The data were compiled and subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS v.17.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA). P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Prevalence of dry eye in our study was 24.7%. Prevalence of lipid layer, aqueous layer, and mucin layer deficiency dry eye was 13.8%, 5.2%, and 7.8%, respectively. Increasing age, illiteracy, and menopause were the significant risk factors and female sex, urban habitat, and laborer and factory worker were insignificant risk factors for dry eye. Conclusion: Prevalence of dry eye in our study is higher than reported in literature in central India. Lipid anomaly dry eye was the most prevalent, followed by mucin layer deficiency and lastly aqueous tear deficiency.