Eye Diseases
Conditions
Interventions
Surgical Facemask wear with taping at the nasal bridge
Facemask wear without taping at the nasal bridge
Sponsors
Amaefuna Kosisochukwu
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1.Consenting health workers of both sexes between 20 to 60 years of age in National Hospital Abuja with no prior ocular surface disease. 2.Screened health workers who did not have dry eye disease (symptoms + one positive tear homeostatic sign/test) following the pre-intervention assessment, and have been fully resident in Abuja in the week preceding the screening.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1.Health workers with a recent diagnosis of dry eye or other ocular surface diseases in the past 6 months (pterygium, conjunctivitis, keratitis, blepharitis, facial nerve palsy, etc.) 2. Presence of co-existing eye lid anomalies like ectropion, entropion, trichiasis, etc. 3. Health workers who were screened and found to have dry eye disease from the pre-intervention assessment. 4. Prior use of artificial tears, eye drops (anti-glaucoma medications, eye drops containing benzalkonium chloride preservative), or systemic medications (antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anxiolytics) which can affect the ocular surface within the last 3 months. 5. Previous eye surgeries including refractive and laser procedures. 6. Contact lens wear. 7. Participants with high refractive errors (more than 6 dioptres of myopia or hyperopia ) 8. Systemic co-morbidities like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, etc. 9. Pregnancy 10. Use of hormone replacement therapy. 11. Prior radiation therapy for facial tumors. 12. Respiratory diseases that may make participants non-compliant to wearing face masks for the duration of the study. 13. Health workers who routinely wear face masks for prolonged periods (continuously for more than 8 hours daily, 5 times a week in the last 2 months) such as those working for prolonged hours in isolation wards. 14. Health workers who declined consent.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Dry eye symptom score;Schirmers test score;Tear break-up time;Oxford corneal staining score | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Development of Mask-Associated dry eye disease | — |
Countries
Nigeria
Contacts
Public ContactKosisochukwu Amaefuna
Ophthalmologist
Outcome results
None listed