Compliance: a comparison of three lens care systems.

Noncompliance is an important health care issue. This report presents results of assessments of three different lens care systems and directly compares compliance with each and the potential impact on patients' safety and comfort. Methods involved trained interviewers, patient demonstrations, a panel of experts, statistical analyses, and an assessment of the clinical significance of patients' noncompliant behaviors. These methods were able to discriminate among the levels of compliance with the lens care systems assessed. The three regimens were comparable regarding steps significant to lens wearing comfort with approximately one-third of all patients noncompliant with at least one of these steps. The same cannot be said regarding safety, however, with the incidence of noncompliance at 55, 84, and 91% for the three regimens. These findings indicate that simplicity alone cannot overcome noncompliance and the design of the system is an important consideration when making recommendations regarding lens care.