Gender differences in dry eye disease symptoms associated with psychological health indicators among adults using mobile mental health apps

Hyojin Kim; Youngju An; Won Ju Hwang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0278921

Gender differences in dry eye disease symptoms associated with psychological health indicators among adults using mobile mental health apps

PLoS One. 2023 Jan 17;18(1):e0278921. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278921. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hyojin Kim¹, Youngju An², Won Ju Hwang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Optometry, Division of Health Science, and Graduate School of Health and Welfare, Baekseok University, Cheonan, Korea.
² Department of Optometry, Baekseok Culture University, Cheonan, Korea.
³ Department of College of Nursing Science, East-west Nursing Research Institute, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Purpose: We aimed to investigate the association between dry eye disease (DED) symptoms and mental health among Korean adults in the community.

Methods: A cross-sectional study analyzed the data of 152 participants using mobile-phone applications for recording mental health. We defined individuals with DED symptoms as those who experienced a sense of irritation or dryness of the eye (either constantly or often). Mental health (perceived stress, depression, and anxiety) was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and General Anxiety Disorder-7, in this order. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between DED symptoms and mental health. We also adjusted for possible covariates. We investigated sex differences in mental health status in relation to DED.

Results: We found that 41.4% of the participants (48.4% female and 30.5% male) showed DED symptoms, and its prevalence was higher in female than in male. The average perceived stress and anxiety symptoms in the female with DED (24.69±4.73 and 6.56±5.09, respectively) were significantly higher than those without DED (21.38±4.68 and 4.54±4.03) (p = 0.020 and 0.038, respectively). Even after adjusting for possible covariates, female who had DED showed higher risks of perceived stress (OR = 1.28), depression (OR = 2.64), and anxiety (OR = 5.81).

Conclusions: Clinicians and nurses should therefore be aware of the possibility of mental health problems among female with DED.

Copyright: © 2023 Kim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Cross-Sectional Studies
Dry Eye Syndromes* / diagnosis
Female
Humans
Male
Mental Health*
Prevalence
Risk Factors
Sex Characteristics
Sex Factors
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), and it was funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HI18C1317). The funding agencies had no role in the study design, the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the article for publication.