Epidemiological Survey Of Dry Eye In Workers In The Railway System Of Liaoning Province

Objective：The Objective was to understand the prevalence of dry eye in railwaysystem workers of Liaoning Province, and to explore the risk factors associated withincidence of dry eye.Methods: Normal population of the railway system in Shenyang, Dalian, Anshan,Fushun, Benxi, Dandong, Jinzhou, Yingkou, Fuxin, Liaoyang, Chaoyang of LiaoningProvince in the period from March to November of2012was for the survey.Questionnaires and eye examination were carried out after informed consent wasobtained. Questionnaire includes:(1) Age, gender, occupation and other basicinformation (2) Sensation of dryness, burning, fatigue, foreign body sensation,heaviness, red eyes, photophobia, other ocular symptoms and the frequency ofsymptoms.(3) History of ocular and systemic disease.(4) Living and workingenvironment and personal habits. Eye examination includes: Slit lamp examination,Schirmer test, tear film break-up time, corneal fluorescence staining, and meibomiangland function tests. Data obtained was in accordance with reference diagnostic criteriafor diagnosis. The results were statistically analyzed by sex, age, occupation, andrelated factors of dry eye were analyzed by Logistic regression analysis.Results: We have1238people completed the questionnaire survey at last (623males,615females). There were334patients with dry eye and the prevalence was27.0%. Among these patients, there were210males and124females whose prevalencewere33.7%and20.2%respectively, and dry eye prevalence of males was higher thanfemales, and there was statistically significant difference (P<0.001). There were18patients of dry eye in the20-30age group,141patients in the30-45age group and175patients in the45-60age group, and their prevalence was11.8%(18/152)，24.1%(141/585)，34.9%(175/501) respectively. Dry eye prevalence rate increased withgrowth of age the age. There was significant difference among different age groups indry eye prevalence (P <0.001). There were91locomotive drivers,67locomotive crews, 69department staff,89maintenance and support personnel, and18logistics staffs withdry eye in different occupational groups. Their prevalence rates were35.3%(91/258),22.9%(67/292),25.6%(69/269),30.0%(89/297) and18.9%(18/95) respectively.Prevalence of dry eye in locomotive driver was the highest, and there was statisticallysignificant difference in prevalence rates among different occupational groups(P<0.001). In the subjects, there were459patients in total whose tear film break-uptime was less than10seconds and the positive BUT rate was37.0%(439/1238). Amongthese people, there were132locomotive drivers,85locomotive crews,95departmentstaffs,125maintenance and support personnel and22support staffs whose positive rateof tear film break-up time were51.1%(132/258),29.1%(85/292),35.3%(95/269),42.1%(125/297) and23.1%(22/95) respectively. There was statistically significantdifference in positive rate of tear film break-up time among different occupationalgroups (P<0.01). Compared with the normal population, there was statisticallysignificant differences in the prevalence of dry eye in patients who were suffering fromdiabetes, long-term smoking and driving, exposure to video terminals, use of eye dropsand long-term work exposed to oil smoke, dust, sand, ultraviolet environment (P<0.05,P<0.05, P<0.05, P<0.001, P<0.05, P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis of risk factorsassociated with dry eye display that diabetes(P<0.01,OR3.001), long-termdriving(P<0.05,OR1.905), the use of video terminals(P<0.01,OR4.668), the use of eyedrops(P<0.01,OR2.018) and smoke, dust, sand, UV environment(P<0.05,OR1.569)may become the risk factors of dry eye in the railway system workers of LiaoningProvince. However, hypertension, wearing contact lenses, eye surgery have no relationswith the dry eye occurrence.Conclusion: The dry eye prevalence was27.0%in the railway system workers ofLiaoning Province, and it was higher in males than in females, which was increasedwith age. The dry eye prevalence and positive rate of tear film break-up time were thehighest in the locomotive drivers. Diabetes, long-term driving, the use of videoterminals, the use of eye drops and smoke, dust, sand, UV environment may become therisk factors of dry eye in the railway system workers of Liaoning Province.