Contact lens usage and health literacy among Turkish adults

Objective: To evaluate the usage of contact lenses and health literacy among ophthalmology clinic outpatients.. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on outpatients of an ophthalmology clinic between July and September 2019. The data were collected using a questionnaire that consisted of questions about sociodemographic characteristics, contact lensrelated behaviors, the European Health Literacy Scale (HLS-EU) Short-Form, and the Ocular Surface Disease Index. Contact lensrelated behavior was evaluated through 15 questions. P < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Results: In the study group 402 (54.8%) of the participants were males. The ages of the patients ranged between 18 and 75 years, with a mean (SD) of 39.20 (15.0) years. It was found that 28.4% (n = 208) of the study group participants were contact lens wearers. The health literacy level was higher in the contact lens wearers. A positive correlation was found between the scores of the HLS-EU and the answers to the contact lens-related behavior questions. Conclusion: In this study, we found that the health literacy levels of the contact lens wearers were higher than those of the non-contact lens wearers. As the health literacy of the patients increased, the behaviors towards the correct use of contact lenses improved. It is recommended that more detailed studies be carried out in the field of health literacy with contact lens use.