New Research Shows Vision is Vital for Multifocal Contact Lens Satisfaction, Validates Simple Assessment Method at Dispense

Findings from two recently-published peer reviewed papers can help eye care professionals (ECPs) succeed when prescribing multifocal contact lenses (MFCLs) to presbyopes. One study reveals that meeting patient vision needs may be more important than comfort for patients when choosing to continue MFCL wear, while the other validates an easy method to more successfully predict satisfaction and purchase intent.

“CooperVision has been at the forefront of advancing MFCL designs, simplifying fitting and partnering with ECPs to help patients become, and stay happy, from day one. Our support of these studies has generated valuable insights with widespread application,” said Karen Walsh, MCOptom, PGDip, FAAO, FIACLE, FBCLA, Senior Director, Global Professional Affairs, CooperVision.

Appearing in Clinical Optometry, Relationships Between Success Factors in Daily Disposable Multifocal Contact Lenses (Guthrie S, et al) explored the intersection of subjective comfort and vision in habitual MFCL wearers when refit with daily disposable MFCLs. Fifty-eight participants wore either a stenfilcon A multifocal or delefilcon A multifocal lens pair for two weeks before doing the same for the other design and material.

Satisfaction was assessed for vision and end-of-day comfort following each two-week period, as well as overall lens preference at the conclusion. Stenfilcon A (MyDay® daily disposable multifocal) showed higher statistically significant results in meeting vision needs and participant desire to wear the lens in the future. Moreover, the authors report that while various comfort and vision metrics were intricately related, achieving visual needs were more important than comfort needs for retaining presbyopes in MFCLs.1 The complete paper is available for online review or download at https://doi.org/10.2147/OPTO.S462723.

Published in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, the journal of the British Contact Lens Association, Multifocal Contact Lens Success Predictability (Lazon de la Jara P, et al.), sought to give ECPs a reliable, straightforward method to assess patients’ future satisfaction while still in the exam lane. Investigators tested three different MFCL designs from two manufacturers over one week of wear on 210 participants, equally distributed between emergent, established, and advanced presbyopes. A first-of-its-kind statistical analysis used 14 vision variables collected during the dispensing visit as predictors of overall vision satisfaction at 1-week of multifocal contact lens wear.

Overall vision satisfaction (100-point visual analog scale (VAS)) on dispensing was identified as the optimal predictor for overall vision satisfaction (p < 0.001) and intention to purchase (ITP; 5-point Likert scale) (p < 0.001) at one week.2 The paper is available at no cost via Open Access by visiting https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clae.2023.102105.

“Asking a single question—‘On a scale of 1-100, how satisfied are you with your vision?’—yields significant dividends. Every gain over 80 points increases the likelihood of a patient’s acceptance and purchase, while anything below that score is a signal to improve their vision before they leave the office,” said Dr. Percy Lazon de la Jara, Director of Research Programs at CooperVision. “Reducing chair time while elevating satisfaction through our design advances such as the Binocular Progressive System™ and this vision satisfaction assessment method will help more people benefit from the latest in multifocal options.3”

ECPs can use an array of techniques to optimize overall vision satisfaction during the first dispense. These include ensuring the patient has up-to-date spectacle and contact lens refractions, following the manufacturers’ fitting guides, and using intelligent digital tools such as CooperVision’s OptiExpert® contact lens calculator.