Impact of Dry Eye Disease on Work Productivity Among Saudi Workers in Saudi Arabia

Figures & data

Table 1 The Demographic Factors and Dry Eye Disease Severity

		Severity of Dry Eye
		Mild		Moderate		Severe		P-value
		Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
Age (years)	20–30	31	44.3%	24	36.4%	95	29.1%	0.070
	31–40	21	30.0%	18	27.3%	85	26.0%
	41–50	12	17.1%	20	30.3%	114	34.9%
	>50	6	8.6%	4	6.1%	33	10.1%
Sex	Male	26	37.1%	33	50.0%	88	26.9%	0.001*
	Female	44	62.9%	33	50.0%	239	73.1%
Smoking	Yes	19	27.1%	14	21.2%	53	16.2%	0.086
	No	51	72.9%	52	78.8%	274	83.8%

Note: *p<0.05.

Table 2 Employment Factors and Dry Eye Disease Severity

		Incidence (%)	Severity of Dry Eye						P-value
			Mild		Moderate		Severe
			Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
Employment status	University student	90 (19.4%)	16	17.8%	13	14.4%	61	67.8%	0.721
	Employee	373 (80.6%)	54	14.5%	53	14.2%	266	71.3%
Employment type (students excluded)	Office worker	307 (82.3%)	42	13.7%	34	11.1%	231	75.2%	0.000*
	Field worker	66 (17.7%)	12	18.2%	19	28.8%	35	53.0%
Work experience (years)	1–5	83 (17.9%)	18	21.7%	13	15.7%	52	62.7%	0.347
	6–10	97 (21.0%)	14	14.4%	9	9.3%	74	76.3%
	11–15	55 (11.9%)	7	12.7%	10	18.2%	38	69.1%
	>15	153 (33.0%)	17	11.1%	24	15.7%	112	73.2%
	Not employed	75 (16.2%)	14	18.7%	10	13.3%	51	68.0%
Time spent at work daily	<4 hours	17 (3.7%)	6	35.3%	0	0.0%	11	64.7%	0.014*
	4–6 hours	146 (31.5%)	23	15.8%	17	11.6%	106	72.6%
	7–8 hours	232 (50.1%)	27	11.6%	34	14.7%	171	73.7%
	>8 hours	68 (14.7%)	6	35.3%	0	0.0%	11	64.7%
Time spent on electronic devices at work daily	< 2 hours	59 (12.7%)	12	20.3%	8	13.6%	39	66.1%	0.103
	2–4 hours	122 (26.3%)	22	18.0%	22	18.0%	78	63.9%
	4–6 hours	127 (27.4%)	17	13.4%	21	16.5%	89	70.1%
	7–8 hours	96 (20.7%)	16	16.7%	10	10.4%	70	72.9%
	> 8 hours	59 (12.7%)	3	5.1%	5	8.5%	51	86.4%
The electronic device used the most in during the day	Desktop Computer	137 (29.6%)	21	15.3%	18	13.1%	98	71.5%	0.559
	Laptops	68 (14.7%)	9	13.2%	10	14.7%	49	72.1%
	Tablets	11 (2.4%)	1	9.1%	4	36.4%	6	54.5%
	Smartphone	247 (53.3%)	39	15.8%	34	13.8%	174	70.4%

Note: *p<0.05.

Table 3 Participant Health and Dry Eye Severity

		Incidence (%)	Severity of Dry Eye						P-value
			Mild		Moderate		Severe
			Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
Comorbid condition	Hypo/hyperthyroidism	39 (8.4%)	3	7.7%	4	10.3%	32	82.1%	0.004*
	Rheumatoid arthritis	16 (3.5%)	3	18.8%	3	17.8%	10	62.5%
	Diabetes mellitus	21 (4.5%)	1	4.7%	0	0.0%	20	95.2%
	High cholesterol	57 (12.3%)	6	10.5%	3	5.3%	48	84.2%
	Myopia/hyperopia	160 (34.6%)	22	13.8%	24	15%	114	71.3%
	Astigmatism	42 (9.1%)	4	9.5%	10	23.8%	28	66.7%
	No comorbid conditions	128 (27.6%)	31	24.2%	22	17.2%	75	58.7%
Undergone vision correction operations	Yes	108 (23.3%)	14	13.0%	11	10.2%	83	76.9%	0.241
	No	355 (76.7%)	56	15.8%	55	15.5%	244	68.7%
Contact lens use	Yes	99 (21.4%)	13	13.1%	16	16.2%	70	70.7%	0.722
	No	364 (78.6%)	57	15.7%	50	13.7%	257	70.6%
Lubricant eye drops use	Yes	279 (60.3%)	30	10.8%	33	11.8%	216	77.4%	0.00*
	No	184 (39.7%)	40	21.8%	33	17.9%	111	60.3%

Note: *p<0.05.

Table 4 The Impact of Dry Eye Disease on Work Productivity

		Incidence (%)	Severity of Dry Eye						P-value
			Mild		Moderate		Severe
			Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
Work hours missed due to dry eye weekly	1–2	23 (5.0%)	3	4.3%	0	0.0%	20	6.1%	0.094
	3–5	2 (0.4%)	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	2	0.6%
	6–8	8 (1.8%)	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	8	2.5%
	>8	2 (0.4%)	1	1.4%	1	1.5%	0	0.0%
	I do not miss work because of dry eyes	428 (92.4%)	66	94.3%	65	98.5%	297	90.8%
Work hours affected due to dry eye weekly	1–2	81 (17.5%)	2	2.9%	3	4.5%	76	23.2%	0.00*
	3–5	23 (5.0%)	3	4.3%	1	1.5%	19	5.8%
	6–8	13 (2.8%)	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	13	4.0%
	>8	9 (1.9%)	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	9	2.8%
	My functional performance is not affected by dry eyes	337 (72.8%)	65	92.9%	62	93.9%	210	64.2%
Face difficulty in focusing due to dry eye	Yes	220 (47.5%)	12	17.1%	15	22.7%	193	59.0%	0.00*
	No	243 (52.5%)	58	82.9%	51	77.3%	134	41.0%
Take a break from work due to dry eye	Yes	311 (67.2%)	27	38.6%	27	40.9%	257	78.6%	0.00*
	No	152 (32.8%)	43	61.4%	39	59.1%	70	21.4%
Need to stay away from air-conditioning, office equipment, or make any other changes in the work environment to improve dry eye	Yes	289 (62.4%)	23	32.9%	17	25.8%	249	76.1%	0.00*
	No	174 (37.6%)	47	67.1%	49	74.2%	78	23.9%
Impact of dry eye on work performance during past week (0–10)	Mean (SD)	2.542 (2.73)	0.84 (1.28)		1.272 (1.74)		3.16 (2.88)		0.000*

Note: *p<0.05.

Abbreviation: SD, Standard Deviation.

Table 5 Impact of Eye Problems on Daily Activities

Question: Have Problems with Your Eyes Limited You in Performing Any of the Following During the Last Week?	Reading		Driving at Night		Working on Computer		Watching TV
	Frequency	Percent	Frequency	Percent	Frequency	Percent	Frequency	Percent
None of the time	59	11.5%	73	14.2%	90	17.5%	74	14.4%
Some of the time	132	25.7%	141	27.5%	128	25.0%	154	30.0%
Half of the time	178	34.7%	120	23.4%	130	25.3%	139	27.1%
Most of the time	58	11.3%	41	8.0%	77	15.0%	68	13.3%
All of the time	49	9.6%	30	5.8%	31	6.0%	40	7.8%
NA	37	7.2%	108	21.1%	57	11.1%	38	7.4%

Abbreviations: NA, not applicable; TV, television.