The Ocular Surface Laboratory (OSL) is continuing its endeavours into shedding light on the natural history of dry eye disease (DED) development. Recent studies have explored risk factors for dry eye that were identified in the TFOS DEWS II epidemiology report, such as age, gender and ethnicity. Our studies comparing co-located Asian and Caucasian populations, found a higher prevalence of meibomian gland dropout and incomplete blinking associated with the Asian eye shape. However, the interplay and relative impact of anatomical features, lifestyle factors and socio-cultural aspects are yet to be fully understood.
Ongoing contributions from our New Zealand research team are expanding this work by mapping out demographic, lifestyle and socio-economic risk factors pertaining to dry eye. The latest data collections and research at the University and at Manukau SuperClinic have been spearheaded by medical students, Aditya Arora, a local year IV student, and Lucas Lacerda, an international medical student from the Catholic University of Brasília in Brazil. This work will be compounded by Andy Kim, another year VI medical student and returning BMedSc honours student researcher, who is working with international collaborators extending our studies to the Eye Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in China as part of his elective studies.
Look out for the outcomes of this work being reported in future issues of NZ Optics.
