Contact lens wear and follow‐up and its association with signs and symptoms of meibomian gland dysfunction

Introduction This study investigated the equivocal association between contact lens (CL) wear and meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) by comparing the morphological, functional and subjective outcomes of CL wearers versus control, non‐CL wearers. CL wearers were examined as two cohorts based on the annual attendance of follow‐up visits (FLU—attended these visits, whereas non‐FLU did not). Methods Habitual logMAR visual acuity, invasive and non‐invasive tear break‐up time, Schirmer test, Efron grading scales, meibum quality score (MQS), meibum expressibility score (MES), meibomian gland (MG) loss, lid margin abnormalities and subjective dry eye (DE) symptoms were assessed. Results Of the 128 participants, 31 were in the FLU cohort, 43 were in the non‐FLU cohort and 54 were controls (mean ages: 22.2 ± 3.1, 23.0 ± 4.6 and 22.3 ± 3.5, respectively). Non‐FLU CL wearers had more symptoms than controls (3.7 ± 2.4 vs. 2.3 ± 2.1, p