Objective: To establish an association between dry eye disease and its risk factors, particularly environmental pollution.

Methodology:

This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 2019 at the ophthalmology out-patient department, Ziauddin Hospital Kemari, Karachi. The sample size was 200 and patients with symptoms related to dry eye disease including gritty sensation, dry eye, burning, redness, crusting of eye lashes, sticking of eyelids and others were included in the study. The risk factor assessment was done by a self-administered questionnaire. Data regarding complaints and findings was taken from the patient’s file after obtaining consent. Data entry and analysis was done on SPSS.

Results: Our study included 200 participants with a mean age of 32.4 ± 13.0 years with n= 103 51.8% males and n=96 48.2% females. Only a small proportion n=54 (27%) had outdoor occupations. N=27 13.6% were diagnosed with dry eye disease while in n=172 86.4% it was absent. A significant majority n=153 76.9% of the sample were nonsmokers. Majority of the people n=166 83.4% were using sui gas stoves. The most common ocular complaints were eyelash crusting (49.6%), eye feeling dry (45.7%), gritty sensation (49.8%), blurred vision (39.2%), burning sensation (42.2%) and redness (38.7%). Various risk factors had a significant association with dry eye disease, including recent history of Lasik procedure (p-value=0.008), exposure to chemical (p-value=0.013) or thermal radiation at work (p-value=0.001), decreased blinking frequency (p-value=0.01). High temperature (p-value=0.00) and low humidity (p-value=0.03) also had highly significant associations with the occurrence of dry eye disease.

Conclusion: Environmental pollution has a crucial role in the occurrence of ocular complaints related to dry eye disease. Therefore, appropriate actions should be taken to reduce pollution and implement protocols at workplaces to minimize chemical and radiation exposure to the workers.

Keywords: Dry eye disease; environmental pollution; visual problems; ocular complaints