Two recent peer-reviewed papers found patients value their vision needs being met above comfort when choosing to continue multifocal contact lens (MFCLs) wear, with one of the papers also validating an easy method to more successfully predict patient satisfaction and purchase intent. 

The first paper, published in Clinical Optometry, explored the intersection of subjective comfort and vision in habitual MFCL wearers when refit with daily disposable MFCLs. Fifty-eight participants first wore either a stenfilcon A multifocal or delefilcon A multifocal lens pair for two weeks before switching to 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 (CooperVision MyDay daily disposable multifocal) showed higher statistically significant results in meeting vision needs and participant desire to wear the lens in the future. The authors also noted that while various comfort and vision metrics were intricately related, achieving visual needs were more important than comfort needs for retaining presbyopes in MFCLs.  

The second paper, published by Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, sought to give ECPs a reliable, straightforward method to assess patients’ future satisfaction while still in the exam room.  

Testing different MFCL designs from two manufacturers over one week of wear on 210 participants, equally distributed between emergent, established and advanced presbyopes, investigators found overall vision satisfaction (100-point visual analogue scale) was identified as the optimal predictor for overall vision satisfaction and intention to purchase at one week.  

“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 programmes at CooperVision.  

ECPs can use an array of techniques to optimise overall vision satisfaction during the first dispense. These include ensuring the patient has up-to-date spectacle and CL refractions, following the manufacturers’ fitting guides and using digital tools.  

Both papers were supported by CooperVision.