Prevalence of mask associated dry eye disease symptoms among health care workers during COVID-19 pandemic in Puducherry, India

The aim of this cross-sectional study is to measure symptoms of mask-associated dry eye disease symptoms among health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a cross-sectional study which included Health care workers willing to participate in the Questionnaire based study from March 2022 to May 2022. After initial consent participants completed the questionnaire on the duration of mask wear, type of mask, presence and the severity of Dry Eye Disease (DED) symptoms.A total of 930 completed data had been analyzed. Out of them 651(70%) had reported to have DED symptoms either sometimes or often. About two-third 65% (605) health care workers were in the age group of 18 to 29 years, 55% (465) had been using face mask between 4 to 8 hours per day. Less than a quarter 20% had reported to be having previous dry eye symptoms. Among them 68% (126) reported worsening symptoms. Almost half 45% wore spectacles, among them 72% reported fogging of their glasses while wearing mask. Age group 18 to 29 years were reported to have significant association with DED symptoms along with usage of N95 mask and male gender using Chi square test (P <0.001).Our study reported ocular discomfort in majority of Health care workers who are in the fore front in this Covid-19 pandemic for long hours, hence counseling of proper wearing of face mask and ocular treatment as and when needed to maintain their ocular surface health by consulting ophthalmologist is recommended.