A Survey Of Dry Eye Among People Engaging In Offshore Service In Island In Da Lian

Objective: First, a survey of people engaging in offshore service in island in DaLian.Second, a statistical analysis of possible risk factors and clinical test resultsrelative to dry eye of people engaging in offshore service.Method: Select530people engaging in offshore service in island in Da Lian during1st March2012to1st January2013, make a epidemiological analysis of dry eye anddiscuss the study results through questionnaires, slit lamp examination, tear breakuptime test, Schirmer’s test, fluorescein corneal stain and observing Tears Lake meniscus.Results: The prevalence of dry eye was30.75%among the530cases of subjects, andwith the age growing, the prevalence of dry eye showed an upward trend, the prevalencewas significantly higher in the groups over40-year-old than these below40-year-old (P<0.05); However, the survey found that there was no significant differences in theprevalence of dry eye between male and female; we also found that the prevalence ofdry eye was growing with the growth of the length of service, and the prevalence ofpatients engaging in offshore operations over10-year was significantly higher than thatof those less than10years (P <0.05). The routine examinations of the survey showed:849eyes’ BUT≤10s (80.09%),754eyes’ SIT≤10mm/5min (71.13%),621eyes withcorneal staining (59.15%),567eyes with abnormal Tears Lake meniscus (53.49%).Comparing the results of the examinations showed that the BUT and SIT presented adownward trend and the number of people with corneal fluorescein staining andabnormal Tears Lake meniscus increased with increasing of length of service. Thesurvey results also showed143cases (87.73%) with chronic conjunctivitis and dry eye,132cases (80.98%) suffering from trachoma and dry eye,107cases (65.64%) withpterygium and dry eye,47cases (28.83%) accepted ocular surgery and dry eye.Conclusion: The results of this survey showed offshore workers were exposed to ahigh-risk population of dry eye, the incidence of dry eye presented a clear upward trend with age increasing; The longer engaging in offshore operations, the higher theprevalence of dry eye. The environment of Offshore operations may be one of riskfactors for dry eye.