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A mobile application promoting good contact lens practices

Contact lens complications pose an ongoing problem for both optometrists and contact lens wearers. Most of these complications are due to noncompliance to good care practices. Education is the first step to ensuring compliance. If good habits are created on commencement of wear, patients are more li...

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Main Author: Naidoo, Terushka
Other Authors: Berman, Sonia
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Computer Science 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author Naidoo, Terushka
author2 Berman, Sonia
author_browse Berman, Sonia
Naidoo, Terushka
author_facet Berman, Sonia
Naidoo, Terushka
author_sort Naidoo, Terushka
collection Thesis
description Contact lens complications pose an ongoing problem for both optometrists and contact lens wearers. Most of these complications are due to noncompliance to good care practices. Education is the first step to ensuring compliance. If good habits are created on commencement of wear, patients are more likely to continue with these habits or practices. The key however, is maintenance and building on this education, as we cannot expect patients to remember all the information given to them initially. Telemedicine is rapidly becoming a wide reaching and convenient way to provide services and support to patients. The aim of this study was to create a mobile application to provide contact lens wearers with knowledge and assistance to empower them to take good care of their eyes and lenses. A mobile application was built for the study with three main features: a lens change reminder, an information feature, and a diagnosis facility to aid contact lens wearers when they encounter any problems. A PDF version of the application was also created with the latter two features; a secondary aim was to compare its success with that of the mobile application. After receiving ethical clearance for the study, lens wearers who signed the Informed Consent form, were surveyed about their symptoms, knowledge and habits in relation to contact lenses and their eyes. After being divided into two groups, they were either given the mobile application or the PDF document to use. They were subsequently given a second survey to determine if there were any changes to symptoms, habits and knowledge. They were also questioned about the value and effectiveness of the application and the PDF. Although, the results of habit changes were inconclusive, there was a decrease in symptoms after using both the app and the PDF. Both were well received and the majority of participants reported that they would recommended them to others. The mobile application was used more frequently than the PDF, led to a slightly better improvement in knowledge, and scored slightly better in its user evaluation, compared to the PDF.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:39:48.364Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher Department of Computer Science
publisherStr Department of Computer Science
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36515 A mobile application promoting good contact lens practices Naidoo, Terushka Berman, Sonia computer science Contact lens complications pose an ongoing problem for both optometrists and contact lens wearers. Most of these complications are due to noncompliance to good care practices. Education is the first step to ensuring compliance. If good habits are created on commencement of wear, patients are more likely to continue with these habits or practices. The key however, is maintenance and building on this education, as we cannot expect patients to remember all the information given to them initially. Telemedicine is rapidly becoming a wide reaching and convenient way to provide services and support to patients. The aim of this study was to create a mobile application to provide contact lens wearers with knowledge and assistance to empower them to take good care of their eyes and lenses. A mobile application was built for the study with three main features: a lens change reminder, an information feature, and a diagnosis facility to aid contact lens wearers when they encounter any problems. A PDF version of the application was also created with the latter two features; a secondary aim was to compare its success with that of the mobile application. After receiving ethical clearance for the study, lens wearers who signed the Informed Consent form, were surveyed about their symptoms, knowledge and habits in relation to contact lenses and their eyes. After being divided into two groups, they were either given the mobile application or the PDF document to use. They were subsequently given a second survey to determine if there were any changes to symptoms, habits and knowledge. They were also questioned about the value and effectiveness of the application and the PDF. Although, the results of habit changes were inconclusive, there was a decrease in symptoms after using both the app and the PDF. Both were well received and the majority of participants reported that they would recommended them to others. The mobile application was used more frequently than the PDF, led to a slightly better improvement in knowledge, and scored slightly better in its user evaluation, compared to the PDF. 2022-06-22T16:03:57Z 2022-06-22T16:03:57Z 2022 2022-06-22T16:03:26Z Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36515 eng application/pdf Department of Computer Science Faculty of Science
spellingShingle computer science
Naidoo, Terushka
A mobile application promoting good contact lens practices
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A mobile application promoting good contact lens practices
title_full A mobile application promoting good contact lens practices
title_fullStr A mobile application promoting good contact lens practices
title_full_unstemmed A mobile application promoting good contact lens practices
title_short A mobile application promoting good contact lens practices
title_sort mobile application promoting good contact lens practices
topic computer science
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36515
work_keys_str_mv AT naidooterushka amobileapplicationpromotinggoodcontactlenspractices
AT naidooterushka mobileapplicationpromotinggoodcontactlenspractices