Dry Eye Disease: The Undervalued Impact on Quality of Life - Ophthalmology & Vision Research

Dry eye disease (DED) is one of most common ocular disease and reason for primary eye care visit worldwide. Besides ocular discomfort, visual disturbance is also a common symptom reported by  patients  with  this  disease. The symptoms may vary from mild to severe  degree  which  can  affect  daily  activities  and  quality  of  life.  Studies  have  shown  that  DED  interfered with  reading  and driving ability and associated with increased anxiety, stress and depression. Thus, DED should be considered as an important public health problem deserving increased attention. Unfortunately, the attention towards DED amongst eye professionals is still somewhat low in general. It has become a necessity to increase awareness and continue to carry out studies that will expand our understanding, support the innovation of new treatment, and improve patient’s quality of life. Simply throwing artificial tears to the patients expecting that it would immediately ease their symptoms is no longer acceptable. Patients with DED should be assessed comprehensively and treated as a whole, not merely “eyes that are not wet enough”.

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