Disorders of the tear film, the illness of Middle of the World

Abstract

The behavior of the lacrimal film on the ocular surface depends on the individual's own characteristics, habits and external factors. The combination of these elements can produce alterations in the lacrimal film structure (dry eye). The objective of the study was to establish the incidence of dry eye in people living in Quito using low cost diagnosis tests in optometric consultations of primary health care. The amount and quality of the tear film was evaluated with the Schirmer I test and the Break Up Time test to 493 individuals (44,2 % men and 55,8 % women). The alterations of the lacrimal film were classified into 5 groups: epiphora reflects and evaporation; epiphora reflects; lack of watery; alteration of the lacrimal film by evaporation, lack of watery and evaporation. The 86,6 % of the population has some dysfunction of the lacrimal film, the alteration due to evaporation was the more prevalent. Significant differences were found by gender, in terms of the amount of tears in women and significant differences in quality between genders, however, in the ANOVA those differences were irrelevant. Regarding age, a progressive decrease in tear quality was observed as age increase. This study reveals the high percentage of individuals diagnosed with some lacrimal disorder and, therefore, shows evidences to increase more studies on this affectation in Andean populations.